After weeks of silence over his former spokesman’s claim that ex-president Rodrigo Duterte had a “gentleman’s agreement” with Chinese president Xi Jinping, the previous Philippine chief executive finally came clean over the weekend.
Duterte did have such an agreement, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. found disturbing.
Duterte said late last week that he had agreed with Xi to maintain the status quo in the West Philippine Sea.
He said he remembered shaking hands with the Chinese leader and an agreement was forged on the status quo. There would be “no movement, no armed patrols there,” said Duterte.
Ayungin Shoal was not specifically mentioned in his talk with Xi, added Duterte.
Marcos, however, was not satisfied.
“I am horrified by the idea that we have compromised, through a secret agreement, the territory, and the sovereign rights of the Filipinos,” the President told local media.
If such an agreement puts the onus on the Philippines to ask other countries for their permission to navigate shared waters, “that kind of agreement would be difficult to follow,” he added.
Former Duterte spokesman Harry Roque revealed the supposed gentleman’s agreement, which former chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo denied existed.
Under that agreement, only basic supplies like food and water and not construction materials could be delivered to the BRP Sierra Madre which was grounded in the Ayungin Shoal and which serves as the Armed Forces’ outpost in the area, which falls within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Despite the pact, Duterte also said that “we have not conceded anything to China.”
“Nobody but nobody in the Philippines today, either the Supreme Court, the presidency, or Congress can concede anything about territories,” he added.
Roque said the pact with Xi was intended to keep the peace in the South China Sea.
Duterte dared Marcos to repair the Sierra Madre, saying the incumbent president should “stop complaining” and just “do it and repair (the grounded ship). Let us see what happens.”
The former president also called Marcos a “crybaby” for running to the US for help in stopping China’s constant harassment of Philippine Coast Guard and Filipino fishermen in Ayungin Shoal.
Marcos went to the US last week to meet with President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The three leaders then released a statement telling China to stop the “dangerous and coercive use of its Coast Guard and maritime militia ships in the South China Sea, citing its “dangerous and aggressive behavior” in the waterway.
The three leaders also called on China to abide by the 2016 arbitral ruling upholding the Philippines’ jurisdiction over the West Philippine Sea.
During his presidency, Duterte stated that the Philippines should not risk going to war with China, as the country was sure to lose.
But retired Supreme Court associate justice Antonio Carpio — who led the Philippine team that challenged China’s claim before the Permanent Court of Arbitration — said he does not believe China will go to war, contrary to Duterte’s claims.
Carpio cited Indonesia which had gone so far as to blow up Chinese fishing vessels and Malaysia which continues to survey and drill for oil in its own EEZ.
China has not gone to war with the two nations, said Carpio.
On several occasions, both US President Biden and Vice-president Kamala Harris have said there is an “ironclad” agreement that the US will help the Philippines should it invoke the mutual defense treaty between the two nations. Under that treaty, any attack on one country is considered an attack on the other.
