A BISHOP, a former Cabinet secretary and a
group of lawyers and civilians yesterday questioned before the
Court of Appeals the constitutionality of an Executive Order
concerning the sharing of revenues from the Camago-Malampaya oil
and natural gas project off Palawan.
Petitioners Palawan Bishop Pedro Dulay Arigo,
former Interior Secretary Cesar Sarino, Dr. Jose Antonio
Socrates and Atty. Harry Roque said EO 683 runs counter to the
Constitution and the Local Government Code, deprives residents
of an equal share in the proceeds of the multibillion project,
and would imperil government's territorial claim to the Kalayaan
Islands, which are part of the Spratlys.
Named respondents were Executive Secretary
Eduardo Ermita, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, Finance Secretary
Margarito Teves, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya, Palawan Gov.
Joel Reyes, 1st District Rep. Antonio Alvarez, 2nd District Rep.
Abraham Mitra, and Philippine National Oil Company Exploration
Corp. president and CEO Rafael del Pilar.
Petitioners claimed that the EO was signed in
grave abuse of discretion amounting to a lack of jurisdiction of
respondents. It said the national government was actually
realigning funds in violation of the Constitutional provision on
the equitable sharing of resources between national and local
governments.
Petitioners also asked the CA to direct the
national government to release to Palawan its 40 percent share
in the proceeds of the Camago-Malampaya oil and gas fields which
the national government has been withholding based on its claim
that Palawan is not entitled to it since the Malampaya project
is outside the province's jurisdiction.
The petitioners also said government would
lose its claim over the Kalayaan islands if its persists on
implementing EO 683 since Palawan is the anchor of the
Philippine claim to the extended continental shelf (ECS) under
the United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Seas (UNCLOS).
"This is not only a legal argument but also a
scientific one, because our own experts who have studied the
area argue that the best way to claim an ECS in the area is to
consider the Malampaya fields and the Kalayaan island group as a
unified extension of the continental shelf of Palawan,"
petitioners said.
"Hence, the Philippine claim to sovereignty to the entire
Kalayaan island group region, as well as to the Camago-Malampaya
fields, cannot stand on any solid footing without acknowledging
the existence of the continental shelf of Palawan, and without
advancing it before the proper UN body, the Commission on the
Limits of the continental shelf," they added. - Evangeline
C. de Vera
