IMLOS Director on PH-China Loans: “It’s like mortgaging our natural resources, and it is unconstitutional”

IMLOS Director on PH-China Loans: “It’s like mortgaging our natural resources, and it is unconstitutional”

Chinese academic avers: the loan agreements are usually accompanied by repayment agreements, which use certain natural resources as collateral; UP academic retorts: It’s like mortgaging our natural resources, and it is unconstitutional

Professor Jay Batongbacal, Director of the UP Law Center IMLOS (Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea), once again had occasion to express concern about Fil-Sino maritime issues in the West Philippine Sea. His comments were sought on a report in the Global Times, a Chinese newspaper, that the Philippine government would use natural resources as collateral for multimillion-dollar loans from China. In the report, Zhuang Guotu, head of Xiamen University’s Southeast Asian Studies Center, discussed the cooperation between the two countries. Referring to the loans granted the Philippines, Zhuang was reported to have said that the “loan agreements are usually accompanied by repayment agreements, which use certain natural resources as collateral.”

Dr. Batongbacal observed that such an arrangement would be tantamount to alienation of the Philippines’ natural resources which are declared inalieanable by the 1987 Constitution.

The full report can be accessed at : http://globalnation.inquirer.net/164828/china-loans-ph-natural-resources-collateral

 

  • Post category:News
  • Post last modified:July 7, 2020