{"id":155120,"date":"2018-03-03T21:55:14","date_gmt":"2018-03-04T02:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=155120"},"modified":"2018-03-03T21:55:14","modified_gmt":"2018-03-04T02:55:14","slug":"constitution-allows-joint-exploration-in-wps-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/03\/03\/constitution-allows-joint-exploration-in-wps-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Constitution allows joint exploration in WPS: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Presidential<\/a>
FILE: Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr.\u00a0 ALBERT ALCAIN\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Saturday reiterated that joint exploration at West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) is allowed in the 1987 Constitution.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this statement as critics of the Duterte administration, who according to him, acted like Supreme Court (SC) justices, continued to insist that the joint exploration violated the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng problema doon sa mga kritiko ng administrasyon nais nilang maging justices ng Supreme Court, maghintay muna po kayong maitalaga diyan at maghintay muna kayong magkaroon ng kapangyarihang gumawa ng desisyon,\u201d Roque said in a briefing in Zamboanga del Norte.<\/p>\n

(\u201cThe problem with the critics of the administration is that they all want to be Supreme Court justices, lets just wait to be appointed there at wait to have the same power to make those decisions.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Roque again cited a 2004 La Bugal ruling which provides that the President could enter intoagreements with foreign entities for large-scale explorations.<\/p>\n

\u201cMalinaw po ang La Bugal, ang joint exploration po ay pinapayagan sa ating Saligang Batas basta alinsunod ito sa isang kontrata na nilagdaan ng Presidente at isusumite sa Kongreso (La Bugal is clear, joint explorations are allowed in our Constitution as long as it follows the contract signed by the President and submitted to the Congress),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

He also insisted that joint explorations were \u201cconstitutional\u201d in both disputed and undisputed areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cConstitutional po ang mga joint exploration doon po sa area na walang dispute, kagaya ng 57 at doon sa area na mayroong dispute kagaya ng 72 (Joint explorations are constitutional in areas without dispute like 57 and areas with dispute like 72),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Roque also clarified anew what President Rodrigo R. Duterte\u2019s statement which likened the proposed joint exploration with China in the disputed territory to \u201cco-ownership\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi naman niya sinasabi na magko-co-owner tayo. Kaya lang habang hindi natin rini-resolba pa iyong pagkakaiba, iyong pag-aangkinan ng teritoryo, ang tingin ng Presidente ay mas mabuti na makinabang na sa pamamagitan ng joint exploration (He didn\u2019t say we would be co-owners. While we haven\u2019t resolved our differences, our territorial dispute, the President thinks that it\u2019s best that we can benefit from joint exploration),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Roque earlier said the Palace still trusts ins China\u2019s good faith commitment not to make new artificial islands in Scarborough Shoal.<\/p>\n

Scarborough Shoal is claimed only by the Philippines and China while Spratly\u2019s Group of Islands where China started to build artificial islands even before Duterte\u2019s came to office midway of 2016 are also claimed by other nations, according to Roque.<\/p>\n

In July 2016, the Permanent Court on Arbitration ruled in favor of the Philippines\u2019 case contesting China\u2019s nine-dash line claim that covers nearly the whole of WPS which supposedly rich in oil and gas resources.<\/p>\n

Duterte has opted to maintain friendly through peaceful dialogues while improving economic ties with China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Saturday reiterated that joint exploration at West Philippine Sea (South China Sea) is allowed in the 1987 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":143927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[11223,15359,47589,978,1039,1144,3370],"class_list":["post-155120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-duterte-administration","tag-harry-roque","tag-join-exploration","tag-malacanang","tag-south-china-sea","tag-supreme-court","tag-west-philippine-sea","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}