President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday criticized former President Rodrigo Duterte and his camp for making contradicting statements on the alleged "secret deal" that his predecessor made with China.

Speaking at the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines' 50th Anniversary Presidential Forum, Marcos said he was only getting "excuses" from people in the Duterte administration who might have been involved in making the deal.

The President said that he has three questions regarding the gentleman's agreement: Is there such an agreement? What is contained in the secret agreement, and why is it secret?

Marcos said he's having difficulty finding answers for them because he has been hearing different responses from those people who are familiar with the so-called gentleman's agreement.

"One person says 'There's no agreement'. Another person says, 'No, there was talk but it's only status quo'. The other one would say, 'There was an agreement,'" Marcos said.

"It's all very maraming palusot (many excuses), in other words. I don't know how to translate that in English, but maraming palusot," Marcos added.

When questioned about whether Duterte might bear legal responsibility, the President stated that he doesn't perceive any accountability at the moment due to the absence of supporting evidence.

Marcos expressed his desire to review the facts before making any decisions.

"I cannot see how there could possibly be any legal liability. There is no evidence of any agreement. Is there a document that was signed? I love to see it," Marcos said.

"We are so far from getting to the truth... It's very hard to give a reaction to those questions," Marcos added.

Last week, Duterte refuted the existence of a "gentleman's agreement" between the Philippines and China regarding the West Philippine Sea (WPS) during his tenure.

In a late-night press briefing on Thursday, Duterte said that such an agreement is not a customary practice of the president.

"That's what I remember. If it were a gentleman's agreement, it would always have been an agreement to keep the peace in the South China Sea," Duterte said.

"I will be expressing more (in the coming days) because I just received all documents of Malacañang about foreign policy. I just got it (...) and I want to review all the agreements that we entered into by the defense department and me," Duterte said.

Duterte's former spokesperson Harry Roque initially spoke about the "gentleman's agreement" after China attacked several Philippine ships that were on resupply trips to the BRP Sierra Madre several times.

Roque says that the envoy reminded Duterte of the deal to keep the status quo, which apparently meant that the ship would not be fixed.

But Roque said that Duterte's deal was not legally binding.