Is Marcos’ plan to amend Philippine constitution for China deal a ploy to keep his family in power?

Critics are concerned that China could use the deal to press its territorial claims in the West Philippine Sea

They also suspect that the amendments are a backdoor for Marcos Jnr’s cousin Martin Romualdez to become prime minister

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Philippines’ President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr delivers his speech at Camp Aguinaldo military headquarters in Quezon city, Philippines on December 21, 2023. Photo: AP

Published: 3:30pm, 20 Jan 2024Updated: 3:34pm, 20 Jan 2024

President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr and his political allies are rushing to amend the Philippine constitution in the hope that this would, among other goals, enable Manila to land a joint oil and gas deal with Beijing in contested waters.

But analysts have warned that such a move could strengthen China’s claim inside the Philippines’ 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone, which Manila considers part of the West Philippine Sea (WPS) and in turn overlaps with the so-called “nine-dash line” that China considers its maritime sovereignty.

Other changes they have proposed include: extending terms of office; shifting from a presidential to a federal and parliamentary form of government; as well as lifting current restrictions on foreign ownership of land and corporations engaged in media, advertising, education, public utilities and natural resources extraction.

Marcos Jnr himself ran for the presidency under the banner of Partido Federal ng Pilipinas whose major advocacy is to establish a federal form of government. Human rights activists are particularly suspicious of his charter change because Marcos Jnr’s late dictator-father entrenched himself in power by calling for a constitutional convention then grabbing control of its process after imposing martial rule.

The resulting 1973 constitution enabled the senior Marcos to stay in power for another 13 years because he installed a weak parliament while retaining himself as president with the power to amend the charter and make laws.

Ruling party Senator Francis Tolentino made it clear on Tuesday that he was backing the charter change “so we can explore and develop the natural resources in the West Philippine Sea”. He said the country could only do this “with the help of investments from another country whose technology and equipment we need in order to drill, extract and convert” oil and gas deposits.