The Philippines is working to resolve the issue in the West Philippine Sea (WPS) to start new energy exploration projects before the Malampaya gas field starts to run out of supply, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said on Saturday.

“We are still at a deadlock right now. It is in a conflict area. So, that’s another thing that we have to try and resolve to see what role any countries play,” President Marcos was quoted as saying in an interview with Japanese media when asked about the current issue in the maritime region and the Malampaya gas field.

“It’s still of course the position of the Philippines that this is not in a conflict area. This is very clearly within our EEZ [exclusive economic zone]… within our baselines, within the maritime territory, the Philippines,” the President said and explained that the country has been in negotiation for over three years now, but admitted that very little progress has been made with regard to the talks.

He noted the supply of liquified natural gas (LNG) is becoming more and more important to the Philippines, particularly as it transitions to renewable energy.

“We are seeing LNG as being the transition between purely fossil fuel, coal, to the more bigger mix of renewables,” Marcos said.

“But this — the move to renewables, I think we are all discovering is not as easy as we had hoped and so we need a transition period to give ourselves time to bring the infrastructure and to allow the technologies to develop,” he said.”

Some of the new technologies are still being piloted so the country has to wait for them to be rolled out in a commercial basis and that will take a little time for the country’s transition to clean energy, he said.

The Philippines has to secure sufficient fuel supply especially with all the plans for development that the administration has for growth of the economy.

“The supply of reliable, affordable power is always going to be critical and it has been one of the problems that the Philippines has faced, are…. power and even the lack of supply,” the President said.

“So, that is what we — that is what we’ll be working on. So, that’s why LNG has become more and more important and so it’s imperative for the Philippines to find a way to move the process forward so as to be able to assure ourselves of that transition — the fuel supply during that transition period, he stated.”

Photo: Presidential Communications Office