MANILA – The House of Representatives is set to investigate the supposed “gentleman’s agreement” then President Rodrigo Duterte had with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez has urged the appropriate committee to take a look on the said deal that prevented the Philippines from repairing and resupplying the BRP Sierra Madre at the Ayungin Shoal.
“We support President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s denouncement of the secret gentleman’s agreement between former President Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping,” said Romualdez.
“At the same time, in the exercise of our oversight powers, we will direct the appropriate House Committee to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, to determine the adverse impact of such agreement on our national interests, particularly our sovereignty, sovereign rights, and territorial integrity,” he added.
The Leyte representative said the country’s territory, sovereignty, and sovereign rights may have been compromised by the deal, disguised as an “agreement”, to maintain the peace and status quo in the West Philippine Sea.
Romualdez also cited Article 56 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or UNCLOS, which provides that a coastal state, in this case the Philippines, had the right to build and maintain structures within its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
“Ayungin Shoal is part of the country’s (EEZ) as reaffirmed by the 2016 arbitral ruling on the South China Sea arbitration case. This would clearly mean that our country has every right to protect and safeguard all features within our [EEZ] including the Ayungin Shoal,” Romualdez said.
Romualdez further said that the “gentleman’s agreement” that prohibited supplies to the BRP Sierra Madre was “tantamount to the surrender of the country’s sovereign rights.”
“We believe that, in the end, upholding our territorial integrity and sovereignty in accordance with our Constitution and with international law is what matters the most,” Romualdez said.
The “gentleman’s agreement” was first revealed by Duterte’s former spokesperson Harry Roque, but its existence was denied by Salvador Panelo, the chief presidential legal counsel of the previous administration.
Former President Duterte, for his part, said he conceded nothing to China during his administration, but he adverted to a “status quo” in which neither the Philippines nor China would make any move to disrupt the South China Sea, including the transport of construction materials to the BRP Sierra Madre./PN
