Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Tuesday said he doubted that joint exploration and development with China for resources in the South China Sea would work, as Beijing would insist on its sovereignty over the heavily disputed waterway. Philippine Special Envoy for Intercultural Dialogue Jose de Venecia Jr. proposed joint exploration in the Spratly archipelago during the new Silk Road conference in Beijing on Sunday. “Last time that [joint development] was tried, China said, ‘You have to put there in the agreement that sovereignty belongs to China.’ And nobody can do that. No Philippine official can do that,” Carpio said. He was referring to the joint marine seismic undertaking (JMSU) started in 2003 among Philippine National Oil Co. Exploration Corp., China National Offshore Oil Corp. and PetroVietnam on Recto Bank, a large table mount in the South China Sea internationally known as Reed Bank

Andrade, J. I. (2017, May 17). Carpio presses issue of sovereign rights. Philippine Daily Inquirer, p. A2.