China’ funded communist in the Philippines will Block VFA Australia

Australia is caught in a political row in the Philippines over American forces in Asia and the Pacific.

Against a clamor from activist groups, the Philippines senate leader has warned that with China flexing its muscle, now is not the time to block Australian forces.

Anti-war and civil society groups in the Philippines are campaigning against the renewal of a military agreement with Australia.

The Visiting Forces Agreement, or VFA, with Australia goes before the Philippines senate next month for a final vote on ratification.

Philippines non-government organizations see the agreement with Australia as part of a US-led military build-up in the Asian region, and plan to stage a protest outside the Australian embassy in Manila later this week.

60 per cent American Power in Asia

The protesters point out - as recently announced - that America plans to station about 60 per cent of its war fleet in the Asian region by 2020.

Agreements on big US bases in the Philippines were revoked after the fall of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

However, activist groups say since then Philippines governments have used the VFAs to effectively re-base significant US military forces there.

Corazon Fabros, lead convenor of the Stop the War Coalition in the Philippines, told Radio Australia's Asia Pacific program: "The presence of foreign troops in our country does not help in terms of maintaining peace and security."

She claims the Philippines constitution prohibits a US armed presence.

The coalition says joint military exercises are bad for local communities because they generate prostitution and sexual abuse of women.

Also, "we've had many experiences with the United States forces of injuries and damage to properties," Ms Fabros said.

"We feel that the VFA has been a way for the United States and our government to get around the prohibition against the presence of US troops in our country."

Overseas forces, she said. are not bound by local laws. "We've had a very controversial experience in the recent past, of the rape of a Filipina by a US marine.

"That had been a classic example of how a US soldier has been treated and privileged, if they commit a crime on Philippine soil."

The Philippines senate will be considering the issue of the VFA with Australia at the end of July.

Philippines Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile has warned that now is not the time to abandon the VFA with Australia - especially given China's muscle-flexing in the West Philippines Sea (South China Sea).

Ms. Fabros said the "China question" is often trotted out as a justification.

"We are definitely against using our territory for the training and military exercises," she told Radio Australia.

"We're not at war with any country; we need to uphold the Philippine constitution. We need strong allies, far beyond being used as military training ground and the rest and recreation of foreign troops.

"The Philippines should develop strong diplomatic ties with other countries, especially with its neighboring nations, around Asia and the Pacific, to forge cooperation.

"We need to maintain our friendly relations, our independence, our neutrality."

Reasons:

China funded communist party in the Philippines want to block the VFA Australia for the following reasons:

• The coalition says joint military exercises are bad for local communities because they generate prostitution and sexual abuse of women.
• Philippines is independent and must stand alone without Australia or US Powers

The Question is.. What shall be done? Who to stand with? 

ABC Radio Australia

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Philippines Will award Oil and Gas Bidder July 2012 for Recto Bank Exploration

THE Department of Energy Philippines (DOE) is expecting to finish the technical evaluations for the oil and gas contracting round by the end of the month, an official told reporters said.

Evaluations for the coal contracting round however are not expected until July 2012.

"We are proceeding with the technical evaluation, by the end of this month and we will finish at least the technical evaluation of all the bids we have received. So after that we will recommend already to the Secretary. Coal will be sometime in July because it's a larger number," said Energy Undersecretary Jose M. Layug, Jr. in an interview.

He added the department will be choosing "the best bids from those areas with multiple bids for approval."

AREAS UP FOR BID

The government is offering 15 oil and gas exploration areas in the 4th Philippine Energy Contracting Round.

The department earlier offered 12 other areas for oil and gas exploration on April 27, 2012.

Three other areas will be bid out by the end of July 2012.

These areas are located in northwest Palawan, near the Galoc oil field and the Malampaya natural gas field.

Of the 12 areas bid out last month, seven areas received bids.

Some of the bidders included:

1. Forum Pacific, Inc., a consortium of The Philodrill Corp. and Philex Petroleum, MinEnergy Pte. Ltd.,
2. Loyz Oil Pte. Ltd., the consortium of Mitra Energy Ltd.,
3. Kuwait Petroleum Exploration Corporation
4. Tapoil Ltd.,
5. Helios Mining and Energy  
6. Dil Moro Energy Corp.
7. NorAsian Energy Ltd.,
8. Black Swan Energy Ltd.,
9. Frontier Oil Ltd. and Planet Gas Ltd Clean Rock Renewable Energy Resources Corp.
10. Monte Oro Resources Energy, Inc.

Mr. Layug said the department will put a premium on bidders with more aggressive work programs for the potential exploration site.

The government is expecting $7.5 billion in investments from the contracting round.

The coal contracting round offered 38 exploration areas with about 28 sites receiving bids from investors. Due to the interest in oil and gas exploration in the country, Mr. Layug said there have been several seismic firms that have approached the government to offer surveying services.

"We noticed that the areas that did not that did not get any bids were areas that did not have that much data. After the offering round, we were approached by several firms who want to conduct seismic surveys," said Mr. Layug.

The department however would not disclose which firms approached them.

Mr. Layug said the government does not have the capability to conduct many of the seismic surveys needed for oil exploration.

Energy Undersecretary Jose M. Layug Jr. said that once completed, the group will be able to make its recommendations to the energy secretary as to which party or company should be awarded a petroleum service contract.

According to Layug, the 13 offers being processed now included the nine submissions that were accepted during the opening of the bids last April, and the four other offers, which were initially rejected by the DoE but later reconsidered.

The move to fast-track the processing of the bid offers, which were opened only last April, was meant to hasten the development of local indigenous resources, cut costly oil imports and help ensure the country's energy security over the long term.

The last time that the DoE had awarded a petroleum service contract was in April 2009, to UK-based Pitkin Petroleum Ltd. and South China Resources Inc., for Service Contract 71, which covered 1.16 million hectares within the Mindoro-Cuyo basin.

Layug remained hopeful that the DoE would receive more offers from big foreign exploration players when the Philippine government auctions off Areas 3,4 and 5, all located within northwest Palawan, by end-July.

The northwest Palawan basin is reportedly one of the most prolific oil and gas basins in the Philippines and is home to the country's most successful natural gas project, the $4.5-billion Malampaya gas field.

Currently, production within this basin alone had reached roughly 58 million barrels of oil, 800 billion cubic feet of gas and 40 million barrels of condensate.

It is estimated that the basin has further resource potential of 400 million barrels of oil and 2.200 trillion cubic feet of gas.

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