The newspapers didn’t give the event much of a play, and the radio and television networks all but totally ignored it—probably because on the surface, it looked like it was about an issue that only the people of Palawan would care about.

I refer to the urgent petition filed last week before the Court of Appeals (CA) by Bishop Pedro Dulay Arigo of Palawan and three others to stop Malacañang from carrying out a controversial executive order that, they claim, misappropriates the huge revenues from the extraction of oil and gas in the Camago-Malampaya project, to the prejudice of the people of Palawan.

We can’t really blame the newsroom bosses for paying no heed to this one because, after all, there are more pressing national issues competing for precious newspaper space or TV and radio air time.

But the underlying issues being brought to the surface by this legal controversy have deep national implications. As simply as I can put it, the petitioners are asking the court to stop Malacañang from converting into pork-barrel funds what rightfully belongs exclusively to the province of Palawan as provided for in the Local Government Code. 

The code explicitly says that local government units should have 40 percent of the gross collection derived by the national government from its share from the use and development of their natural wealth within their territorial jurisdiction.

It’s no accident that Bishop Arigo’s three copetitioners include former interior secretary Cesar Sarino (who drafted the Local Government Code), prominent Palawan civic leader Dr. Jose Antonio N. Socrates and H. Harry L. Roque Jr., lawyer expert.       

Specifically, they are asking the CA to issue a writ of certiorari, prohibition and mandamus (together with an immediate restraining order) against the national government. 

Subject of the petition is Executive Order 683, which is a directive to carry out a so-called provisional implementation agreement, or PIA. That PIA allows the use of half of Palawan’s 40-percent share in the Camago-Malampaya oil- and-gas project for “developmental projects” (to be specified by Malacanang) in Palawan.

EO 683 also provides that the halved share of Palawan would be released to Palawan’s two congressional districts and the city of Puerto Princesa. However, releases would be subject to the availability of funds and the approval of the President.  

In other words, the funds will be a kind of pork-barrel outlay.

The national government and the petitioners have been locked in this legal tussle for over two years. The national government has stubbornly clung to the notion that the Camago-Malampaya oil-and-gas find is part of the “national wealth” to which the province of Palawan has no claim.

It claims that the natural-gas reservoir is “about 80 kilometers from the coastline of Palawan, and is thus out-side its territorial jurisdiction.” And yet, in a supposed bid for a happy compromise, it issued the controversial EO which, in effect, concedes one-half of what is otherwise legally forthcoming to the people of Palawan.

Make no mistake. Malacañang and Palawan are not exactly fighting over peanuts here. The Camago-Malampaya oil-and-gas project is well on its third year and the revenues have begun to flow into the national coffers. Estimated total government revenue over a 10-year period (which is the projected commercially viable lifetime of the reservoir) is anywhere between $10 billion and $12 billion. 

Assuming total revenue would only amount to $10 billion, Palawan’s 40-percent share would be enough to make Palawan one of the most prosperous provinces in the country. At the current exchange rate, think of what P160 billion can do.

The petitioners had first taken their case to the Regional Trial Court Branch 51 of Puerto Princesa.  That court threw out the petition “for lack of jurisdiction.” Hence the new petition filed last week, which is essentially the same thing.

 The petition’s strongest argument, I believe, is that the Camago-Malampaya discovery well is very much part of Palawan’s territorial jurisdiction. The experts call the seabed where the drilling is being done as part of Palawan’s “continental shelf.” 

For the government to insist that it is not is just like saying the Kalayaan Island group (Spratlys) is not part of Palawan’s extended continental shelf. The petitioners’ basis for this argument is mainly the 1982 United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (Unclos III). The Unclos III is an international agreement that defines what constitutes a coastal state’s “exclusive economic zone” to prevent misunderstandings or conflicting claims over territorial waters. 

There is reason to believe that the government’s position in this case is rather weak. The attempts to have exclusive say on the disbursement or disposition of the gas-extraction revenues to the exclusion of Palawan is based on shaky ground.
By simply proving that the drilling site is part of Palawan’s continental shelf, the petitioners can demolish the government’s case like a house of cards.  

E-mail: Omerta_bdc@yahoo.com

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