Duterte admits 'handshake' deal with Chinese leader

FORMER president Rodrigo Duterte admitted that he and Chinese President

Xi Jinping shook hands on keeping the status quo in the West Philippine Sea.

In a press conference on Thursday, Duterte recounted his conversation with

Xi in which they agreed that there would be no armed patrols and construction
activities to prevent the escalation of the territorial dispute between their
nations.

"Aside from the fact of having a handshake with President Xi Jinping, the only
thing I remember was that status quo. That's the word. No movement, no
armed patrols there. As is, where is, so we won't have any trouble. That's
what I could remember. I do not even know the Ayungin Shoal," he said.

"During my relations with China ... walang written-written (there was no need
for written agreements) except (for) trade which were signed by the
undersecretaries," he said.

Duterte's former spokesman Harry Roque claims that Duterte and Xi had a
"gentleman's agreement" to dial down the tension in the West Philippine Sea

The deal also includes ceasing the delivery of construction materials to repair
the Sierra Madre, a derelict Philippine Navy warship serving as a military
outpost in Ayungin Shoal.

Despite the verbal agreement, Duterte said, "We have not conceded anything
to China."

"I assure you that if it was a gentleman's agreement, it would always have
been an agreement that will keep the peace in the South China Sea," Duterte
said.

"There might have been exchange of control over the China sea, but those
were really territorial in nature, not involving the encroachment of China in an
exclusive economic zone ... Nobody but nobody in the Philippines today,
either the Supreme Court, the presidency or Congress can concede anything
about territories. Hindi gawain ng presidente 'yan (That is not the president's
job)," he added.

Duterte repeated his belief that the Philippines "cannot afford a war at this
time" with Beijing.

Duterte said that from his first state visit to Beijing and conversation with Xi,
he knew that the Philippines could not risk to ramp up tensions with China.

"I said, 'Mr. President, we would insist the China sea, or not the whole of it,
but there is a part of the China sea that belongs to the Philippines ... I will dig
my oil there. I just want to let you know.' This is what Xi Jinping said, 'I am
afraid you cannot do that... because it would mean trouble,'" Duterte said.
"And what I understand from what he said, there will be trouble, if we insist on
our own way there, China will go to war," he said.

Earlier this week, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he was "horrified" by
the rumored "gentleman's agreement" between Duterte and China over the
West Philippine Sea.

"We're talking to (Duterte's) former officials. Maybe not the (former) President
himself, but we are asking all his former officials about that deal and explain to
us so we will know what to do. We still haven't got a straight answer," Marcos
said.

During his "Spox Hour" live show on his Facebook page on Thursday night,
Roque also asked why Marcos was horrified when he did not even read the
contents of the supposed agreement.

"Why was he even horrified? Are you thinking right, PBBM [Marcos]?" Roque
said in Filipino. "You can only be horrified if you know what the agreement is
all about."

Marcos "is only using the China issue to divert the public's attention from the
pressing issues in the country," he said.

UNFAMILIAR WORDS

Undersecretary-a title for a person who works for and has a lower rank than a
secretary.

Encroachment-entry to another's property without right or permission.