VERA Files
All these efforts and pronouncements about joint exploration with China in Philippine territory is in connection with the state visit of China’s President Xi Jinping in November.
It’s good that President Duterte has Harry Roque with him as he seems to have been convinced by China to start the joint exploration in Reed Bank also known as Recto Bank – an undertaking that China had been wanting to do and had been generous with its enticement to the Philippine government.
A day after President Duterte talked about” joint exploration” and “co-ownership” with the Chinese last Feb. 28 in Marawi City, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque was with Karen Davila in ANC’s Headstart.
Asked during his press conference last Wednesday when the talks about the joint exploration in Philippine territory that is also being claimed by China and other countries started, Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano recalled the meeting of the late Deng Xiaoping with then President Corazon Aquino.
From the fragmented information about the resumption of talks on joint exploration with China in the disputed parts of the Spratlys, what is emerging is a repeat of jumbo loans that the administration of Gloria Arroyo obtained from the Chinese government in 2004 in exchange for agreeing to allow China to explore within the country’s economic exclusive zone.