It was former president Joseph ‘Erap’ Estrada who agreed to China’s demand that the Philippines remove the derelict warship Sierra Madre from Ayungin Shoal.
This was what lawyer Harry Roque, former spokesman of ex-president Rodrigo Duterte, said after China reiterated its claim that a Philippine president had committed to remove the World War ll-era ship now serving as an outpost for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
A son of Estrada, however, belied the claim, saying no such deal existed. Sen. Jinggoy Estrada — one of two sons of the former president in the Senate — said it was “unacceptable” for Roque to claim that the former president had made such a deal.
According to the senator, “I once asserted in a privilege speech that there was no agreement or promise that my father, former president Joseph Estrada, made to remove the BRP Sierra Madre from Ayungin Shoal.”
He added that this was further confirmed by then Defense and Security officials such as former Defense secretary Orlando Mercado.
Sen. Estrada, older half-brother of Sen. JV Ejercito, also said it was “disappointing to say the least, and utterly unacceptable for former presidential spokesman Harry Roque to make such baseless claims when he’s not even privy to such information.”
Sen. Ejercito also said the same thing earlier as Mercado.
Late last week, Roque said in an interview that the supposed agreement to remove the grounded Navy warship could be attributed to former president Estrada.
Roque said that if such an agreement had been made, it was not during the Duterte administration.
He said he was only privy to agreements entered into by Duterte.
“But if I’m not mistaken, (China) attributed the agreement to the administration of President Estrada,” said Roque.
Sen. Estrada, however, said it should be remembered that it was president Estrada himself who had ordered the grounding of the Sierra Madre in 1999.
Another former president, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA), also denied China’s claim that a former Philippine chief executive had agreed to remove that grounded warship.
Sen. Estrada, however, pointed at the possibility that Macapagal-Arroyo may have been the party that China’s foreign ministry was referring to.
The senator said there was “relative peace” in the West Philippine Sea, which China insists is part of the South China Sea. Macapagal-Arroyo, said Estrada, “did not take any steps” regarding the matter.
According to the lawmaker, he had asked during a privilege speech last year why it was possible for there to have relative peace in the WPS during the nine-year GMA administration.
“The administration that succeeded my father was conspicuously silent and did not take any step to claim our territorial rights concerning the West Philippine Sea,” he said.
It could not have been the administration of the late president Benigno Aquino lll either, as it was his government that took China before an international court to determine who was the rightful claimant to the WPS.
The Philippines won that case but China refused to accept the decision.
Resupply missions to the Sierra Madre in the Ayungin Shoal as well as humanitarian missions to Filipino families residing in the area have become flashpoints between the Philippines and China in recent years.
The China Coast Guard has been taking progressively aggressive actions against Filipino ships in the area, such acts as ramming the smaller Philippine boats, using lasers to blind the Philippine Coast Guard, and shooting water cannons against local ships, the latest of which resulted in injuries to a handful of Filipinos.
The China Coast Guard became more aggressive in the WPS after the regime of president Duterte pivoted towards China and away from the US.
But current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. reversed the Duterte policy and has since welcomed a semi-permanent US presence in AFP bases in several provinces.
