And last week, before his scheduled departure as Secretary of Foreign Affairs to run for Congressman in the House of Representatives as a prelude to his announced eventual run for Speaker of the House next year, we suggested that Alan Peter Cayetano might finalize with President Rodrigo Duterte an understanding with Chinese President Xi Jinping on a likely Joint Exploration and Development Program in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), as the highlight of several agreements with China during President Xi’s scheduled official visit to Manila in November. We believe the South China Sea area off Palawan and below the Spratlys with now multiple claimants, could be expected to yield significant volumes of natural gas and/or crude oil, which could easily be pumped and shipped to nearby refineries in the Philippines and Southern China as against the expensive back-and-forth long journeys of huge tankers across the Straits of Malacca, the Gulf of Thailand, the Indian Ocean, the Straits of Hormuz and into the Persian Gulf (Arab Gulf) to lift crude in Saudi Arabia or United Arab Emirates or Kuwait for refineries in the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

De Venecia, J. C. Jr. (2018, October 15). Political Parties Conference in Moscow; world needs wise men; need to complete joint program with China on drilling in West Philippine Sea. Manila Bulletin, p. 10.