PANEL GRILLS DUTERTE OFFICIALS ON ALLEGED ‘GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT’ ON WPS

Tupas thanked former Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, former Defense Secretary and now Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) chairman Delfin Lorenzana, and former National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon for attending.

“We want to thank them. Nandito po tayo ngayon for a better appreciation of our resource persons to clarify ano po ba ang totoong nangyari at ano po ang kabuuang istorya. Dahil sa ngayon naguguluhan ang ating taumbayan kung meron ba o wala (na ‘gentleman’s agreement’),” he said.

Medialdea clarified that he was not avoiding the inquiry and narrated that the decision on the WPS dispute came out July 12, barely 12 days after the Duterte administration assumed office.

He added that the status quo at the Ayungin Shoal, where BRP Sierra Madre, a dilapidated war ship which has served as a Philippine military outpost in a low elevation reef since 1999, was part of a 2013 commitment of former defense secretary Voltaire Gazmin to Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing that the former would only deliver food and water to the marines stationed at the BRP Sierra Madre vessel.

Gazmin was the defense secretary during the term of former President Benigno Aquino III.

Gonzales asked if the supposed 2013 agreement between Gazmin and Keqing was the agreement the Chinese Embassy was referring to, Lorenzana replied that there was no such thing transmitted to him by Gazmin when he was briefed about the DND post before assuming office.

“According to the Navy when I talked to them, they were just repairing the sleeping and living areas (of the vessel). We did some repairs para sa tulugan at tirahan ng ating detachment so that they can live comfortably. Tuluy-tuloy ung repair until I left in 2022. The repairs involved only a small portion of that (vessel),” Lorenzana said.

He recalled that the Chinese began bombarding with water cannons ships they claimed were bringing repair materials to Sierra Madre in 2021.

Medialdea disclosed that in the eight official meetings between Duterte and Xi over the period October 2016 to August 2019, the former president was always accompanied by his incumbent Foreign Affairs Secretaries namely, the late Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr., then acting Secretary now Secretary Enrique Manalo, Secretary now Senator Allan Peter Cayetano, and Secretary now Ambassador Teodoro Locsin Jr.

“In my capacity as Executive Secretary, I was able to attend two of the official meetings between former President Duterte and President Xi. First was the state visit of President Xi in the Philippines sometime in November 2018 and the second was on the official visit of President Duterte to China in August 2019. Secretary Locsin was present in all those meetings. Of these two meetings I attended, no ‘gentleman’s agreement’ ever took place between former President Duterte and President Xi. Former President Duterte being a lawyer knew fully well that it was foolhardy to enter into an agreement especially a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ at that with the President of the People’s Republic of China on matters involving sovereign rights,” Medialdea said.

Lorenzana said that like Medialdea, he attended practically all the meetings between Duterte and Xi from the first time that they met in 2016 to the last time they met in 2019.

“It was very telling that at their last meeting in 2019, President Duterte asserted in front of everybody in the bilateral meeting that he is asserting the rights of the Philippines over the West Philippine Sea on the basis of the UNCLOS and the arbitral ruling. After which, President Xi also said that they are also claiming the area. That’s where the conversation ended on the WPS,” he said.

Lorenzana added that Xi also said that time, “We cannot resolve this matter within our lifetime, but maybe our children and grandchildren will be smart enough to find a solution. So that’s how he stated it.”

He said the alleged “gentleman’s agreement” came out only when Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian started talking about it late last year.

“But he mentioned this to me during the first incident of the water cannon incident in Ayungin Shoal in November of 2021. I remember it very well because I was talking to him that night. He was complaining about the strengthening of the Sierra Madre in Ayungin Shoal and while we were talking that night, they were already bombarding the supply ship with water cannons,” Lorenzana recalled.