An incredible claim

Not a few eyebrows were raised when former Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea claimed in a recent House hearing that it was during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III and not of Rodrigo Duterte that a “gentleman’s agreement” was forged with the People’s Republic of China regarding Ayungin Shoal.

Medialdea asserted during the 21 May joint investigation by the House Committees on National Defense and Security and the West Philippine Sea into the Chinese embassy’s claim that a “gentleman’s agreement” was reached between China and the Philippines during the Duterte administration.

No, he said, it was Aquino’s national defense secretary, Voltaire Gazmin, who made a commitment to the Chinese Ambassador Ma Keqing that the Philippine government would only deliver essential goods and not building materials to the grounded BRP Sierra Madre, and for as long as the Philippines kept that promise its resupply missions to the troops at Ayungin could continue to remain there with no interference from the Chinese.

Medialdea said his boss, Duterte, was a lawyer and would not have made such a “gentleman’s agreement” with China.

But such a statement coming from a top Duterte official is incredulous, for at least two reasons.

First, he said he “got that source from one of the officials before….. I cannot recall (who).”

The good gentleman couldn’t name his source and, as it turns out, it was the source of another source of his, that is, “from one of the officials before..” How is that believable?

Second, Medialdea’s pointing to Aquino’s defense secretary as the one who entered into a “gentleman’s agreement” with China is more than strange considering that China, which had been on very poor terms with the Aquino administration, only brought up the matter of a “gentleman’s agreement” in connection with former President Duterte.

Everyone — unless you are akin to an ostrich whose head had been stuck way down below ground for ages — knows that President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III will go down in world history as the Philippine chief of state who took China to court, and whose case which sought a quashing of the Chinese nine-dash line claim over practically the entire South China Sea was given, in 2016, a resounding victory at the arbitral tribunal in The Hague.

Never mind that China has not and will probably never accept nor recognize its loss in an international arbitral court. The fact of the matter is that virtually the entire free world is on the Philippines’ side while the US, which balances out China’s might in this part of the world and is a Philippine ally of longstanding, has emphatically reiterated its commitment to abide by the RP-US Mutual Defense Treaty forged in August 1951.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, in a Senate hearing on 22 May on the wiretapped call between a Philippine naval commander and a Chinese diplomat, said the Philippines will continue to reach out to China although “it has been a real effort for us to assert our rights in our EEZ in the West Philippine Sea – an assertion based on rights granted by international law.”

“The chances for peace are higher if the Philippines beefs up its armed forces for a more credible self-defense,” according to Diwa Guinigundo, a country analyst with New York-based GlobalSource Partners.

Guinigundo, who is a former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas deputy governor for monetary stability and operations, suggests that a bigger portion of the national budget be allocated to sustain higher sovereignty and independence-related military spending.

In a recent report he wrote on the economic implications of the China-Philippines maritime conflict, he stressed that joint patrols with friendly nations, including ASEAN claimants to portions of the South China Sea and greater alliances outside the region are needed, as it is crucial for the Philippines to primarily rely on itself.

The chances for peace are higher, he said, “if only the Philippines starts to strengthen its capability for self-defense, cements joint patrols in the South China Sea, and broadens alliances with various friendly nations.”