THE Philippines and China signed 29 agreements last Tuesday on the first day of President Xi Jinping’s state visit, including a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation on Oil and Gas Development. The other agreements had to do with trade and investments, banking and finance, agriculture, education, culture, and people-to-people exchanges.
Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Teodoro Locsin Jr. and Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi signed the agreement on oil and gas development which will cover the exploration that will soon begin on Reed Bank in the South China Sea west of Palawan.
Even before the visit of President Xi, China and the Philippines had already agreed on several joint projects under the government’s “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program, notably two bridges across the Pasig river, railways and expressways, river control projects, and a dam to provide a new source of water for Metro Manila. Secretary of Trade and Industry Ramon Lopez said a $3.5-billion integrated steel manufacturing plant will soon be set up in Misamis Oriental by Chinese steel company Panhua.
In their talks in Malacañang, President Xi announced new programs, including arrangements for Filipino teachers of the English language to work in China, the importation of more goods such as frozen fruits, and assistance to President Duterte’s counter-drugs and counter-terrorism efforts.
All these are economic projects measurable in dollars and cents. Of greater value to many was the Chinese president’s acknowledgement of the ancient ties that bind the people of our two countries. Long before Spanish and Portuguese explorers came in the 16th century, he said, merchants and settlers moved across the sea separating the two lands.
Jose Rizal’s ancestors came from China’s Fujian province, President Xi said in an article for the Manila Bulletin, while a famed Chinese general, Ye Fei, was born in Quezon. For those who fear China’s intensions as it expands its economic activities around, he said that in all these centuries, China has never engaged in aggression or expansion.
One legal issue that stands between the two countries is the decision of the United Nations Arbitral Court in The Hague in 2016, rejecting China’s claim to most of the South China Sea and upholding the Philippines’ right to claim some islands within its Exclusive Economic Zone. On this issue, President Duterte has said the Philippines stands firmly by its claims, but in the face of China’s counter-claim of sovereignty to most of the South China Sea, he will leave that dispute to be resolved in more agreeable times.
In the meantime, he said at the welcome rites in Malacañang last Tuesday, “With mutual respect, sincerity, and adherence to sovereign equality, I will continue to work closely with President Xi to deepen the relationship between our two countries so we may together secure a peaceful and prosperous future for both our peoples and the entire region.”
On this note of cooperation, without giving up our rights and claims as a sovereign nation, we look forward to an era of progress with our neighbor China, as affirmed by President Xi Jinping and our own President Duterte during the Chinese leader’s state visit this week.
