IT was the rush by an “MVP” firm to implement its tight program to extract oil and gas in Recto Bank in 2011 that triggered a chain of events which, under President Aquino 3rd, resulted in making China the Philippines’ de facto foe. Aquino was well on the way to cutting off diplomatic and economic relations with China had President Duterte not come along and stopped that disastrous foreign-affairs stance.

By “MVP” I of course refer to Manuel V. Pangilinan, who has run the First Pacific conglomerate for decades for its main owner, the Indonesian Anthoni Salim. The group has very successfully, and skillfully, made the public believe that it is owned by Pangilinan that it is even referred to by business journalists as the “MVP group.”

The MVP firm is Forum Energy, acquired by the Salim group in 2008 through its Philex Mining’s PXP Energy Corp. Forum was given in 2010 authority to explore and drill for oil in a part of Recto Bank (known as “Reed Bank” internationally), called Service Contract 72.

Just a few weeks after Albert del Rosario assumed office as foreign affairs secretary in February 2011, Forum in March sent the ship MV Veritas Voyager to explore locations to sink appraisal wells. However, two patrol boats of China’s Marine Surveillance Force approached the ship and forced it to withdraw, telling it to stop its activities at Recto Bank, claiming it was under its jurisdiction as it was allegedly part of China’s Nansha Islands. For us, it is both part of the Kalayaan Island group that Marcos annexed in 1978 and within our 200-kilometer exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as defined in a law that President Arroyo asked to be enacted in 2009.

https://www.manilatimes.net/rushed-oil-search-by-mvp-firm-triggered-hostile-stance-toward-china/572483/