The Philippines, Rich man…Poor man…

It is no secret, and history will tell us that the Philippines since the Spanish era has yet to cross the verge from poverty principally due to manipulation and monopoly by foreign and local power of its resources.  Old phrases such as tobacco monopoly, the mining monopoly, the parity rights, the levies and so on had brought undue misery and hardships. The inequality and the disparaging utilization of the Philippine natural resources in favor of foreign power and the elite had precluded genuine progress. And here now comes the present, with the dwindling wealth and resources in the west the powers of the east and west is racing back towards Africa and South-East Asia to renew and introduce a new brand of colonization using the same old but time proven and effective gun boat diplomacy. The Philippines is again stunned, bewildered by the display of might and military power. In the same way their native ancestors had been awed before them. It was because the Philippine’s has failed to evolved. Its is now paying the price for complacency. Its independence is nestled on the shoulder of other countries like the United States. It refused to understand the dangers of geo-politics. Barring all these, the Philippines could have been one of the economic powers in the world today, and maybe in the future given the potential of its vast natural resource.

The West Philippine Sea also known as the South China Sea is one of the regions in the world with most productive areas for commercial fishing. The region accounted for at least eight percent of the total world catch, and this was an old figure.

Averaging the USGS and the Chinese energy estimates, the West Philippine Sea also known as South China Sea may be sitting on at a reserves and deposits of 7 billion tons of crude oil and 41 trillion cubic meters of natural gas respectively. West Philippine Sea or South China Sea holds combined fishing and oil and gas resources worth one trillion dollars according to the Chinese energy agency. The surveys and the resulting estimates were in some way had been spawned when the Philippines in 1976  discovered gas following the drilling of a well at the Reed bank. However, China's complaints halted the exploration. Then Malampaya, the only operational oil platform in the Philippines. It is extracting natural gas from the Camago-Malampaya oil leg (CMOL) (or simply Malampaya Field), located 80 kilometers (50 mi) west of northern Palawan. It is not claimed by other countries. It contains 3.7 trillion cubic feet (1.0×10¹¹ m³) of natural gas reserves. The Malampaya Project began the Philippines' natural gas industry and enabled the supply of at least 2,700 megawatts of power for a period of at least 20 years starting 2002. In December 2001, an extended well test of the thin oil rim beneath the field initially yielded about 8 million barrels(1,300,000 m³) of oil per day (bpd). It is also believed to be the deepest horizontal sub-sea well test undertaken in the world at a depth of about 850 m. Malampaya is expected to provide substantial long-term revenue of between $8–10 billion USD to the Philippines over its life span. Other sites eyed at are the west of Palawan, the Calamian, West Calamian, West Balabac, and East Sabina sites.Another oil field being explored today is Reed Bank, which exploration was halted in 1980's after China's objections. The concession is currently awarded to Forum Energy plc, a UK-based oil, gas and coal company. The Reed Bank concession is located in the South China Sea west of Palawan Island. The licence is located to the southwest of the Shell-operated Malampaya Gas Field. In September 2006, results of the interpretation of the 3D seismic programme at the Sampaguita (an area inside Reed Bank) gas discovery indicated a world class gas accumulation with potential reserves of up to 20 trillion cubic feet (5.7×10¹¹ m³). The Reed Bank deposit estimate is 500% larger than Malampaya. Unlike Malampaya, Reed Bank is claimed by the People's Republic of China, Republic of China, and Vietnam. There is still no news on whether these countries are disputing this exploration or not. In March 2011, two Chinese vessels chased off the Veritas Voyager, a survey ship hired by Forum Energy—a UK based company with a portfolio of projects in the Philippines. Forum Energy intends to return to Reed Bank in 2012 to explore for energy resources (most of the foregoing text were excerpts from en.wikipedia.com).

BENHAM RISE is a 13-million-hectare undersea region that lies east of Luzon and off the provinces of Isabela and Aurora. Also known as Benham Plateau, it is a massive formation of basalt, a common volcanic rock, and is described in a study as a thickened portion of the Philippine Sea plate’s oceanic crust. Studies conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) have indicated large deposits of Methane in solid form in the area. Methane hydrates is a potential future energy source. It’s a new and completely untapped reservoir of fossil fuel with large amounts of methane that largely constitute natural gas. The United Nations recently has approved the Philippines’ territorial claim to Benham Rise, an undersea landmass in the Pacific Ocean potentially rich in mineral and natural gas deposits. The potential revenue from solid Methane has yet to be estimated, but sources suggest that once the appropriate technology is perfected, the Philippines may become the world’s largest supplier of natural gas.

     The Philippine Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) have already identified natural gas and oil deposits in three areas of Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago: the Cotabato Basin, the Davao-Agusan Basin; and an area straddling Tawi-Tawi and Sulu. The Cotabato Basin, notably, includes the 288,000 hectare Liguasan Marsh, straddling the provinces of Maguindanao, North Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat, Relative to this, a leaked diplomatic documents in Wikileaks showed the United States has a special interest in the natural resources in Mindanao and the ending of the armed conflict in the region, giving credence to a suspicion that the United States is prodding the Aquino administration’s peace efforts with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), including brokering the recent secret meeting between MILF spokesman Al Haj Murad and President Aquino. Wikileaks reported that the leaked cable from the US embassy in Manila made particular reference to the so-called Liguasan Marsh in the Cotabato Basin spanning 288,000 hectares and is among the areas controlled by the MILF.

      There were reports that the world's largest reserves of Deuterium, or heavy water, are to be found in the Philippine Trench. "Deuterium is used in the production of (hydrogen) Li-Hy Fuel now used in Canada, America, Germany and some parts of Sweden to provide fuel for cars, trucks, jet planes, etc. including solid hydrogen for the spacecraft Challenger and Columbia. Deuterium can replace gasoline, LPG, LNG, Avgas, etc. in powering all types of internal combustion engines. It does not emit pollutants or any harmful carbon monoxide and does not cause any environmental problems because it is in a member of the water family. Emissions are nothing but water vapor or steam. Deuterium as hydrogen fuel can be used for cooking, lighting, heating and as heavy water fuel for reactors in electric power generation. It is obtained from the deep trenches of the world and the world’s largest deposit of Deuterium is in the Philippines - a big deposit of 868 miles long, 52 miles at widest point, and 3 miles at deepest point, replenished by nature 24 hours a day after deuterium travels more than 12,000 kilometers from Central America to the Philippines through the span of the Pacific Ocean when planet earth turns on its axis from west to east in unending perpetual motion. It is estimated that the world oil reserved will be depleted 35 years from now and that the world will turn to natural gas like methane and hydrogen or deuterium. There is an estimate that Philippine Deuterium can generate an annual revenue of 30 billion US Dollars.

     
      Colonial mentality, corruption, complacency, ineptness, callousness and reactive attitude will keep the Philippines perpetually impoverished. However, transparency, perseverance, political will, self–determination, oneness and pro-action can someday catapult the Philippines to the realm of the world economic powers. But first, on its own it must strive to depend itself and its rights in any theater of adversity. It must make the hard choices. It should and must reassert itself. It must reinvent itself and it must pay the price.