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THE House of Representatives probe on the alleged “gentleman’s agreement” with China concerning the West Philippine Sea (WPS) is set to start May 20.
The probe will be jointly conducted by the House Committee on National Defense and Security and the House Special Committee on the West Philippine Sea.
House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro lauded the decision to investigate the alleged “gentleman’s agreement” between former president Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
She said she hoped Duterte would be invited to the hearing because he was best positioned to say what he discussed with Xi.
Duterte has admitted that he had an agreement with Xi to keep the status quo in the WPS.
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The agreement said the Philippines would not deliver maintenance or repair materials for the BRP Sierra Madre, which is the country’s outpost on Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal.
“I believe that China is… going to use this secret deal to justify their new policy of arresting non-Chinese in the areas they are claiming that are well within our EEZ,” Castro said, referring to the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.
Last month, House Assistant Majority Leader and Zambales 1st District Rep. Jefferson Khonghun said a probe was needed to get to the bottom of the rather “confusing versions” of the issue.
“The investigation will give us a clearer picture, or the real big picture, of what really transpired because we only read [about] the exchanges in the media. So, the congressional probe will give us a chance to hear it directly from the resource persons,” Khonghun said.
In his speech when the House resumed session on April 29, House Speaker Martin Romualdez said the appropriate committees would be ordered to conduct the probe in aid of legislation “to determine the adverse impact of such [an] agreement on our national interests, particularly our sovereignty, sovereign rights, and territorial integrity.”
Romualdez said Ayungin Shoal is part of the Philippines’s EEZ “as reaffirmed by the 2016 arbitral ruling on the South China Sea arbitration case.”
In 2016, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2016 ruled that China’s nine-dash line claims in the South China Sea had no legal basis. The ruling stemmed from the case Manila filed against Beijing, but China has refused to recognize the decision.
Romualdez said that under Article 56 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, “the coastal state, which in this case is clearly the Philippines, has the right to build and maintain structures within its [EEZ].”
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