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.
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 he had three questions regarding the gentleman’s agreement: Is there such an agreement? What is contained in the secret agreement? Why is it a secret?
Marcos said he was having difficulty finding the answers because he has been hearing different things from the people who were supposedly familiar with the so-called agreement.
“One person says ‘there’s no agreement;’ another says ‘no, there was talk but it was only for a status quo;’ another 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,” he added.
Asked if Duterte might bear legal responsibility, the President said he did not see any accountability at the moment due to the lack of supporting evidence. He said he wanted 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’d love to see it,” Marcos said.
“We are so far from getting at the truth. It’s very hard to give a reaction to these questions,” he added.
Last week, Duterte denied there was a “gentleman’s agreement” between himself and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the West Philippine Sea (WPS).
In a late-night press briefing on Thursday, Duterte said that such an agreement was not a customary practice of a president.
“That’s what I remember. If there was a gentleman’s agreement, it would have been an agreement to keep the peace in the South China Sea,” he said.
“I will be expressing more (in the coming days) because I just received all the documents of Malacañang on the foreign policy. I just got it, and I want to review all the agreements that were entered into by the defense department and me,” he added.
Duterte’s former spokesperson, Harry Roque, initially spoke of a “gentleman’s agreement” after China attacked Philippine boats on resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre several times.
Roque said the Chinese envoy reminded Duterte of the deal to keep the status quo, which apparently meant that the Sierra Madre would not be repaired. But Roque said that Duterte’s deal was not legally binding.
