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MALACAÑANG has kept secret an agreement it signed with
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean)
member-countries in 2002 which would allow the setting
up of gas pipelines among neighboring countries in the
region.
The
memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the Trans-Asean Gas
Pipeline (TAGP) was signed by the Philippines, Brunei,
Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand,
Malaysia and Vietnam on July 5, 2008, in Bali,
Indonesia, with former energy secretary Vincent Perez
signing the agreement in behalf of President Arroyo,
according to the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang
Mamamalakaya (Pamalakaya).
Pamalakaya chairman Fernando Hicap said the agreement
requires the ratification of the Philippine Senate,
which was also kept in the dark about the agreement.
“Article
8, Section 2 of the MOU clearly stipulates that this
memorandum of understanding is subject to ratification
or acceptance by all the member-countries, and that the
instrument of ratification or acceptance shall be
deposited with the secretary-general of Asean who shall
promptly inform each member-country of such deposit,”
Hicap said.
For
unknown reasons, Hicap said, Malacañang intentionally
kept the deal secret, away from the scrutiny and
approving authority of the Senate.
“The
senators of the Republic should have been notified and
advised that such an MOU on gas pipeline agreement
exists and it needs concurrence of the Senate because
the nature of the agreement is a regional treaty and,
therefore, subject to ratification,” he said.
In the
agreement, the Philippine government is compelled to
allow the construction of an ambitious gas pipeline from
Palawan to East Natuna, Sabah, Malaysia. Pamalakaya said
the gas pipeline would line the Philippines through
Palawan and Malaysia through East Natuna.
Pamalakaya said the Palawan-Malaysia gas pipeline
project will go as far as 1,540 kilometers, with the gas
pipeline measuring 42 inches in diameter. The cost of
the gas line project between the Philippines and
Malaysia would amount to $3.036 billion.
The
project would start this year and would be completed in
2015.
Pamalakaya said other pipelines to be constructed are
the Malaysia-Thailand gas pipeline, the
Indonesia-Singapore gas pipeline and the
Myanmar-Thailand gas pipeline. Hicap said Singapore is
also eyeing its own gas pipeline that would connect the
Philippines through the Camago in Palawan.
“Nothing
has been said about this ambitious gas pipeline project.
It remains a national confidential project on the part
of President Arroyo and her top officials. The people
were kept uninformed and the Senate, the ratifying
authority, has not been advised that such monumental
project exists that has serious implications to the
nation’s sovereignty and patrimony,” Pamalakaya said.
“If
there’s nothing wrong about this project, why would
President Arroyo keep this project like a big, big
secret? We smell something fishy here, as fishy as Joint
Marine Seismic Undertaking,” the group added.
According to the eight-page MOU document obtained by
Pamalakaya, the agreement was signed on July 5, 2002, in
Bali, Indonesia, by Abdul Rahman Taib, Brunei’s Minister
of Industry and Primary Resources; Suy Sem, Cambodian
Minister for Industry, Mines and Energy; Purnomo
Yusgiantoro, Indonesian Minister for Mineral Resources
and Energy; Nam Viyaketh, Laos’s Deputy Minister of
Industry and Handicraft; Leo Moggie, Malaysian Minister
of Energy, Communications and Multimedia; Brig. General
Lun Thi, Myanmar Minister of Energy; Raymond Lim Siang
Keat, Singapore Minister of Foreign Affairs; Phongthep
Thepkanjana, Minister to the Prime Minister office of
Thailand; Dang Vu Chu, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry;
and former Department of Energy secretary Vincent Perez
Jr. for the Philippine government.
The MOU
states, “Realizing that energy self-sufficiency can be
achieved through national and multinational efforts
geared toward indigenous energy-resource exploration,
development, exploitation, distribution and
transportation, and undertaken in a manner that both
conserves the resources and preserves the environment
and human habitat.”
The MOU,
which is consistent with the vision of the Asean
countries to promote energy cooperation in the region,
was first tackled on June 24, 1986, in Manila when
members of Asean forged an agreement on energy
cooperation, followed by the Asean Energy Cooperation in
Bangkok on December 15, 1995.
The TAGP
is a specific energy program approved in Hanoi, Vietnam,
and was endorsed by Asean heads of state December 16,
1998. On July 3, 1999, the Asean Plan of Action for
Energy Cooperation from 1999 to 2004 was approved, and
it entrusted the responsibility of implementing the TAGP
to the Asean Council on Petroleum. In 2002 the final MOU
on gas pipeline projects across Asean was signed by its
member-states. |
