ASEAN Beat | Diplomacy | Southeast Asia

Philippines Says Any Joint Oil Exploration With China Will Follow Country’s Constitution

Last month, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that he was open to resumption of joint oil exploration in the disputed South China Sea.

The Philippine government has clarified that any future joint oil and gas exploration with China would have to strictly adhere to the Philippine Constitution and other existing laws, after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. raised the possibility last month.

In a statement yesterday, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) emphasized that the Philippines retains sovereign rights over natural resources lying within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf.

“Any decision to pursue, structure, or conclude an agreement on oil and gas cooperation, with China or any other foreign government, will be made solely in accordance with the Philippine Constitution and the country’s laws, jurisprudence and regulations, and in full assertion of its sovereign prerogatives,” the DFA said.

This comes after Marcos told Bloomberg Television late last month that he was open to restarting talks with China on joint oil and gas development in contested waters in light of the “energy emergency” facing the country due to the war in the Middle East.

Marcos said that the war in Iran and the subsequent oil supply shock could provide an “impetus for both sides to come to an agreement” after years of friction in disputed waters.

“That’s something we’ve been talking about for a great deal, but territorial disputes are getting in the way of that,” he said. “That’s something we are exploring. Everything that might be of help, we are certainly pursuing.”

Shortly afterward, the Philippines and China resumed high-level talks over the disputed South China Sea, which were last held in early 2025.  The two sides discussed “initial exchanges on oil and gas cooperation and emphasized stable energy and fertilizer access,” Reuters reported.

While Marcos and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to resume such exploration during the Philippine leader’s state visit to Beijing in early 2023, the two sides have made very little progress, in large part due to Beijing’s pattern of encroachments into Philippine-claimed waters. This has resulted in a string of sometimes perilous confrontations between the Chinese and Philippine coast guards, and created a reservoir of opposition to any possibility of joint exploration.

That Marcos felt the need to broach the possibility was a sign of the significant........

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