glorings deal with china regarding the spratley makes the pinas look bad in the eyes of asean says an analyst

Barry Wain, writing in the Far Eastern Economic Review (Jan-Feb 2008),
puts it this way in "Manila's Bungle in The South China Sea": "What
most observers don't realize is that in the last few years, regional
cooperative efforts to coax Beijing into a more measured stance have
been set back by one of the rival claimants to the islands."

Our government left its regional partners in the lurch: "[T]he
Philippine government has broken ranks with the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, which was dealing with China as a bloc on the
South China Sea issue. The Philippines also has made breathtaking
concessions..."

How? "President Arroyo's agreement with China for a joint seismic
study was controversial in several respects. By not consulting other
ASEAN members beforehand, the Philippines abandoned the collective
stance that was key to the group's success with China over the South
China Sea. Ironically, it was Manila that first sought a united front
and rallied ASEAN to confront China over its intrusion into Mischief
Reef a decade earlier. Sold the idea by politicians with business
links who have other deals going with the Chinese, Ms Arroyo did not
seek the views of her foreign ministry, Philippines officials say. By
the time the foreign ministry heard about it and objected, it was too
late, the officials say."

And our government did so, by means of withholding information from
its own people and its neighbors: "Beijing and Manila did not make
public the text of their 'Agreement for Seismic Undertaking for
Certain Areas in the South China Sea By and Between China National
Offshore Oil Corporation and Philippine National Oil Company'... signed
on Sept. 1, 2004..."

However, the cat's out of the bag, and it includes, not just the
Philippine claim to the Spratlys, but our own iron-clad territorial
limits: "Now that the location is known, the details having leaked
into research circles, the reasons for wanting to keep it under wraps
are apparent: 'Some would say it was a sell-out on the part of the
Philippines,' says Mark Valencia, an independent expert on the South
China Sea. The designated zone, a vast swathe of ocean off Palawan in
the southern Philippines, thrusts into the Spratlys and abuts
Malampaya, a Philippine producing gas field. About one-sixth of the
entire area, closest to the Philippine coastline, is outside the
claims by China and Vietnam. Says Mr. Valencia: 'Presumably for higher
political purposes, the Philippines agreed to these joint surveys that
include parts of its legal continental shelf that China and Vietnam
don't even claim."'

And so the Catholic
.

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