Phl, China 'status quo' policy forged during Noynoy Aquino admin, ex-official says

The so-called "status quo" between the Philippines and China regarding supply missions in BRP Sierra Madre, a grounded Navy ship serving as a Philippine military outpost in Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea, was forged during the Aquino administration, a top official from the Duterte administration said Tuesday.

The joint panel of the House Committee on National Defense and Special Committee on the West Philippine Sea continued its probe into the alleged "gentleman's agreement," during which former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea revealed that then-Defense chief Voltaire Gazmin initially entered into the status quo policy with ex-Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing.

Gazmin worked for the late president Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III from 2010 to 2016, while Medialdea served under former president Rodrigo Duterte's watch from 2016 to 2022.

"The status quo at the Ayungin Shoal, where at BRP Sierra Madre… was in a 2013 commitment of former Defense secretary Voltaire Gazmin to Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Ma Keqing that he would only deliver food and water to the marines stationed to the vessel," said Medialdea, adding that he obtained the information from a former official, whom he did not name.

"It was an off-the-cuff query when the (Permanent Court of Arbitration) decision was about to come out… That was what I recall when the decision came out 12 days after we assumed office. I was just asking around."

However, even after the change of leadership in mid-2016, the purported status quo in the Ayungin Shoal was adopted and maintained during the Duterte administration.

"There is a continuation because that's what's respected. We have to follow that," Medialdea averred.

On 12 July 2016, the PCA favored the Philippines against China's supposedly historic rights over the entire South China Sea, which overlaps the WPS. The decision came out barely 12 days after Duterte assumed office.

1-Rider Partylist Rep. Ramon Gutierrez questioned why the Duterte administration continued to abide by the supposed policy when it could fiercely assert its sovereignty over the Ayunging Shoal following the arbitral ruling.

"We can't help but express our surprise. In 2016, when the arbitration came out explicitly saying we have sovereign rights over exclusive economic zone, the supposed status quo was not changed," said Gutierrez, one of the initiators of the alleged Duterte-Xi secret pact.

"I think if that were the case, we would have postured our foreign policy anchored on the PCA ruling."

Medialdea, however, contended that there was no commitment from the Philippines regarding the repair missions to the BRP Sierra Madre.

Meanwhile, former Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana denied that there were no attempts to repair BRP Sierra Madre during Duterte's time.

"It is not true that we did not do some repairs. Because in 2021, that was the start when China bombarded us with water cannon because they claimed that we were bringing repair materials to Sierra Madre," Lorenzana said.

Both Medialdea and Lorenzana vehemently denied knowing that Duterte had entered into an unwritten agreement with Xi.

According to Medialdea, Duterte and Xi had eight official meetings from October 2016 to August 2019, during which the former chief executive was always accompanied by his DFA secretaries, the late Perfecto Yasay Jr., Alan Peter Cayetano, and Teodoro Locsin, as well as then acting secretary Enrique Manalo.

He asserted that during that period, no gentleman's agreement ever took place between the two presidents.

"President Duterte, being a lawyer, knew fully well that it was foolhardly 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.

Likewise, Lorenzana said Duterte firmly asserted the country's sovereign rights in the WPS during Duterte and Xi's last meeting in 2019.

"President Duterte asserted in front of everybody in the bilateral meeting the rights of the Philippines over the West Philippines Sea on the basis of UNCLOS and arbitral ruling. Upon which President Xi also said that 'we are subclaiming the area.' That's where the conversation ended on the West Philippine Sea," he said.

Duterte had denied having a secret deal with China on the WPS but admitted to agreeing to maintain a status quo in the contested waterway, in which no armed patrols would be seen moving in the area to avoid tension and war.

The alleged agreement is widely believed to have given China leverage to shift blame onto the Philippines amid escalating tensions in the WPS.