Mr. President, please reject De Venecia's proposal for China joint venture in the West Philippine Sea; it will not be good for the Philippines.

Mr. President, please reject De Venecia's proposal for China joint venture in the West Philippine Sea; it will not be good for the Philippines. @inquirerdotnet because of the following reasons:
1. It violates the Philippine Constitution which state (Article XII, Section 2): "The State shall protect the nation’s marine wealth in its archipelagic waters, territorial sea, and exclusive economic zone, and reserve its use and enjoyment exclusively to Filipino citizens."

Repeat, "reserve its use and enjoyment exclusively to Filipino citizens."

2. Moreover, how can we have a joint venture with an entity that brings on the table guns and warships. How would we settle a dispute, for example, which is always very likely in a business venture? How do we ask them to leave Recto Bank, as an example, should we discover we are getting a raw deal, with their warships and unsinkable aircraft carriers (Mischief Reef, Fiery Cross Reef and Subi Reef all with 3 kilometer runways for their fighter squadrons) in the vicinity? This JDV proposal is plain one sided for China.

I quote from this Inquirer news article:

"Mr. Duterte was asked about a proposal for jointly exploring the waters of the Spratly Islands with China and Vietnam.

“Let us see the wherewithals. I will check first if I won’t be disadvantaged. It has to be fair and it has to be balanced,” Mr. Duterte said.

"The Philippines and China open talks on the resolution of their dispute in the South China Sea this week.

"Ahead of the consultations, Philippine Special Envoy for Intercultural Dialogue Jose de Venecia Jr., speaking at the opening of the new Silk Road conference on Sunday, proposed a three-way energy exploration effort at the disputed Spratly Islands among the Philippines, Vietnam and China.

"De Venecia, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, said that such an effort would promote peace and economic development.

"But Cayetano, speaking to reporters on Sunday night, dismissed De Venecia’s remarks as his own view.

“If you look at the statements of former Speaker De Venecia when he was still Speaker, he is consistent with those kind of ideas,” Cayetano said.

“But that doesn’t mean that that’s the direction of the government because we are bound by the Constitution and our own law,” he said.

Read more: http://globalnation.inquirer.net/…/duterte-open-deals-south…
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