1 day ago
7
Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!
Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
Visit Suniway.ph to learn
Cristina Chi - Philstar.com
March 26, 2026 | 11:20am
President Marcos congratulates China President Xi Jinping at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Gyeongju, South Korea, as the latter was named chairman of next year’s meet.
STAR / File
MANILA, Philippines — China said its "door to dialogue" on joint oil and gas development in the South China Sea remains open, but told the Philippines it must first "demonstrate sincerity" before negotiations can resume.
The Chinese Embassy in Manila issued the statement in response to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who told Bloomberg in an interview on March 24 that the global energy crisis sparked by the war in Iran could push both countries to finally reach an agreement on joint exploration in the South China Sea.
"Setting aside differences and pursuing joint development is the right path to uphold peace and stability in the South China Sea and deliver benefits to countries in the region and their peoples," the embassy told reporters.
The two countries had "made positive progress" in past discussions, the embassy added.
The exchange is the most concrete signal from both Beijing and Manila of a potential restart of energy talks that collapsed four years ago.
War in the Middle East has driven up oil prices globally and is hitting the Philippines hard as the country sources most of its crude from the Gulf.
Marcos declared a state of national energy emergency earlier this week.
In the Bloomberg interview, Marcos acknowledged that territorial disputes have long blocked progress on any oil exploration talks between the two countries.
"That's something we've been talking about for a great deal, but territorial disputes are getting in the way of that," he said. "Maybe this provides impetus for both sides to come to an agreement."
Asked whether he sees a "reset" in ties with Beijing, Marcos called it inevitable. "I think it's certainly going to happen. It's happening now. There's going to be a very, very serious restructuring," he said, adding that a "new normal" in international relations would follow the Middle East conflict.
No formal directive yet
Foreign Affairs Secretary Theresa Lazaro clarified at a forum on Wednesday, March 25, that Marcos has not yet issued a formal directive to restart energy talks with Beijing, but did not rule it out.
The possibility of working with China on oil and gas supply is nothing new, Lazaro said, noting that joint exploration had been discussed several times before. She said any future negotiations would be informed by the "pitfalls" of previous attempts, and acknowledged that constitutional challenges remain. The DFA chief confirmed that a formal order may be "forthcoming."
Why talks collapsed the first time
Joint energy exploration in the South China Sea has a long and fraught history between Manila and Beijing.
Under the Duterte administration, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2018 to set up an intergovernmental steering committee for energy cooperation, and then-Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. spent three years trying to negotiate a workable framework.
The effort ultimately ran aground on the question of sovereignty. The Philippine Constitution restricts foreign access to the country's natural resources, and negotiators could not find a formula that would satisfy both Beijing's insistence on its sweeping South China Sea claims and Manila's constitutional restrictions. There is also the continued refusal by Beijing to recognize the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated its nine-dash line.
In June 2022, as Duterte was leaving office, he ordered the talks terminated.
When Marcos took office, he and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed in 2023 to resume discussions, but those talks never gained traction as maritime tensions between both sides escalated.
The US-Israel conflict with Iran, which erupted in late February, has choked off oil supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, where more than 20 million barrels once passed daily. The Philippines sources most of its crude from the Middle East.
