The President was scheduled to arrive here last night on the first leg of his two-nation Asian tour for a flurry of meetings with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, business leaders, and the Filipino community here.

He then moves on to neighboring Singapore on Wednesday which, like the Philippines and Indonesia, is also a key member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

With a lean team of Cabinet members and other government officials, the President is expected to discuss with government and business leaders in Indonesia and Singapore the possibility of intensifying trade and other ties, particularly in the field of oil exploration and regional security.

Among the other members of the official delegation to Indonesia and Singapore are Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, Trade Secretary Gregorio Domingo and Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma.

The President will be on a five-day state visit to Indonesia from March 7 to 9 and to Singapore on March 9 to 11. It will be the fourth and fifth state visits of the President since he assumed office in June last year.

Before embarking on this Asian trip, the President made known his desire to explore the possibility on getting the other ASEAN members to make a common stand on oil exploration in the Spratlys.

In an ambush interview with reporters following the Change of Command in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Aquino said he will be exploring the possibility of a joint oil exploration with co-members of the ASEAN like Indonesia.

“Look at Reed Bank, which is ours. Its discovery was sometime in the mid-‘70s. In 2011, nobody's utilizing it and it can be utilized. Natural gas is very good for baseload plants and cleaner but again we are not able to exploit it because of the disputes. So I'll be asking, [would it not be better if we conduct a] joint exploration? But that's just an idea,” he said.

“I haven't even talked about it to other members of this government but the concept is how do we accelerate the pace whereby everybody gets to benefit from the resources regardless of which country.

But first, of course it has to be in an ASEAN bloc,” Aquino said.

The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam are the ASEAN countries claiming in whole or in part the Spratly and Paracel islands in the South China Sea. The other two are Taiwan and China. The Spratlys are believed to contain substantial undersea oil reserves.

With the surge in crude prices in the world market due to the Middle East unrest, the President said he was also looking into a proposal for emergency oil sharing with countries that have big oil stockpiles like the United States and Japan to curb the rising oil prices and ensure sufficient fuel supply.

“We will consider that, but at the present time, the Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary [Jose Rene Almendras] told me that we have gotten guarantees from certain oil producing countries with regards to the supply,” he said.

“The DoE, together with the oil industry, together with the stakeholders are trying to come up with guarantees that we will not have an interruption of the supply… At this present time, we're working on the 60 days stockpile,” he added.

The President starts his state visit to Indonesia today by laying a wreath at the Kalibata National Heroes cemetery. Aquino will then motor to the Istana Merdeka, the presidential palace, where he will be given full arrival honors.

An upclose and personal meeting between the visiting President and his Indonesian counterpart will be held afterwards.

The two Asian leaders, who earlier met at a regional summit in Vietnam, are expected to discuss closer bilateral cooperation on key issues and concerns. They will also witness the signing of three bilateral agreements on basic education, sports cooperation, and cooperation against transnational crimes.

Genalyn Kabiling & Madel Sabater, Manila Bulletin