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MANILA – The chief of the Philippine Navy on Saturday inspected two retired gas platforms that are being considered for conversion into military observation posts for Recto Bank and the Malampaya gas field in the Western Philippine Sea.
The visit of the commanding flag officer, Navy Vice Admiral Giovanni Bacordo, to the Nido and Matinloc gas platforms came as China again rejected the 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated its extensive claims over the South China Sea.
The location of the two gas platforms northwest of Palawan is considered “strategic and vital” due to their proximity to the Recto Bank, Malampaya and Galoc gas fields, the Philippine Navy said in a statement.
The Malampaya gas field, located 80 kilometers off the Palawan coast, began commercial operations in 2001 and supplies natural gas to 5 power plants in Luzon, which together generate more than 3,200 megawatts of energy.
The Nido and Matinloc gas platforms stopped operating last year after 40 years, the Navy said.
The energy department has offered to transfer their ownership, and “it is the position” of the Department of National Defense to “acquire” and “swiftly transfer” them to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The conversion of the two platforms into Philippine Navy Littoral Monitoring Stations (LMS) is being planned.
“This inspection seeks to analyze the viability of these retired gas platforms to convert them into observation posts for the Recto Bank and the Malampaya gas platform,” Bacordo said.
“This will further enhance our ability to protect our maritime interests in these strategic locations,” he added.
The Navy said the new monitoring stations were a “welcome addition” to enhancing its capabilities to “better serve our maritime nation, especially at its critical location near the nation’s natural gas source.”
In his participation on Friday in a virtual meeting with 13 other heads of the Navy that included those of the United States and Australia, Bacordo echoed the statement of President Rodrigo Duterte at the 75th General Assembly of the United Nations on the arbitration award. of 2016.
Duterte had stated that the ruling “is now part of international law, beyond commitment and beyond the reach of passing governments to dilute, diminish or abandon it.”
“We strongly reject attempts to undermine it,” Duterte said of the award, without naming China, which ignored the arbitration procedure in The Hague and continues to ignore the court’s ruling.
At the invitation of Admiral John Aquino, the commander of the US Pacific Fleet, the Chiefs of the Navy of Bangladesh, India, Japan, South Korea, Fiji, France, New Zealand, Tonga, Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore also they participated in the virtual engagement, according to the Philippine Navy.
Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also have competing claims in the South China Sea, a major commercial waterway that is rich not only in marine resources but also potentially in gas and minerals.
Philippine Navy, Giovanni Bacordo, Nido, Matinloc, Malampaya, gas rigs, natural gas, Recto Bank
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