Harry Roque dropped a bombshell.
He revealed that former president Rodrigo Duterte had a verbal agreement with China’s leader Xi Jinping to preserve the status quo in Ayungin Shoal.
Duterte assured the Chinese leader that only food, water and essential supplies would be brought to a handful of troops stationed at BRP Sierra Madre, a rusting World War II vintage naval transport that has been stranded on the shoal since 1999.
After a quarter of the century, China is expecting the ship, which has remained an active-duty warship, to disintegrate.
The Philippines would not need to tow away the vessel as China has been demanding, because it claimed the shoal to be part of its territory.
However, Harry’s bombshell is a dud.
The so-called “gentleman’s agreement” to preserve the status quo was not legally binding for the government. It was totally unnecessary.
Before Duterte rose to power in July 2016, the Philippines was already observing the “no new occupation” and “no new construction” principle in the disputed waters in the South China Sea.
In 2002, Southeast Asian countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed an informal code of conduct with China, the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), which prohibits new occupation and construction in the disputed waterway.
Even China adhered to the informal code. It has not occupied uninhabited features in the South China Sea.
It only created artificial islands on seven features it had already occupied before the 2002 agreement in Cambodia.
However, China has done excessive land reclamation on its seven occupied features and deployed dozens of Coast Guard and militia vessels on a rotating basis to shoals, reefs, atolls, and the adjacent waters to establish control on these areas.
It’s a de facto occupation, like in Bajo de Masinloc or Scarborough Shoal where it has been preventing fishermen other than Chinese to access the rich fishing ground.
China has even roped the shoal, putting up barriers to prevent Filipino fishermen from entering Bajo de Masinloc’s lagoon.
It has started roping the entrance to the Second Thomas Shoal or the Ayungin Shoal to prevent the delivery of supplies to the Marines aboard BRP Sierra Madre.
Based on the DOC, the maintenance, repairs, and upgrade of the facilities in the disputed areas are allowed as long as no new occupation and construction on an uninhabited feature is done.
China has done excessive land reclamation. The other claimants, like Malaysia, Taiwan and Vietnam, had also done some reclamation and some improvements on existing facilities.
The Philippines had done upgrades on its existing structure and facilities, like building a beaching ramp and upgrading the airfield on Pagasa Island.
Soldiers’ barracks and other faciligties in other seven features it occupies were improved.
Lighthouses and buoys which help in the safe navigation in the disputed areas are also allowed.
The Philippines has not violated the DOC. It continues to adhere to its provisions, while negotiating for the last two decades to convince China to sign a legally binding Code of Conduct.
If there were violations to the DOC, China should be held to account as it built man-made islands and swarmed with hundreds of Coast Guard and militia vessels the uninhabited features to effectively gain control of the area.
Thus, the “gentleman’s agreement” was a useless verbal deal.
It’s hard to prove it existed. There were no records to show it happened.
If Duterte and Xi had a deal, it was only binding between the two of them.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is not a party to the “gentleman’s agreement” and is not obliged to carry out the deal which he has no complete idea of what was agreed upon.
In international diplomacy, some of the agreements were worked out from the lowest levels before they reached senior ministers and leaders.
There were lengthy negotiations on both sides and normally these were fully documented.
Even a joint communique or a statement between two states were negotiated before the final draft was released.
It was impossible for very a important issue to be resolved by a verbal agreement without any record.
Harry Roque is pulling our legs. He has been sowing discord and disinformation that favors China.
Duterte might even look bad in the verbal agreement if it really existed.
For a former leader, who continues to swear to die for the country, including riding a jet ski to the disputed shoal to assert the country’s claim, it was unthinkable he would have agreed to a handshake to settle the Ayungin Shoal issue.
Duterte would be committing treason to allow BRP Sierra Madre to collapse and allow the Philippines to lose a key outpost to check China’s creeping control of the entire strategic waterway.
Where does Harry’s loyalty lie? He might be shifting to Beijing and abandoning a powerless, sickly former leader.
For Harry, perhaps, ex-president Duterte is now useless, like the gentleman’s agreement he was crowing about.
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