Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said he’s “horrified” to learn of an agreement between his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, and China that bars Manila from shipping construction materials to a military outpost in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

“If that agreement says we need to seek permission from another country to be able to do something within our own territory, it would probably be difficult to honour that agreement,” Marcos told reporters on Wednesday. “I am horrified by the idea that we have compromised through a secret agreement the territory, the sovereignty and the sovereign rights of the Philippines,” he added.

Duterte’s former spokesperson, Harry Roque, has said the Philippines entered into a “gentleman’s agreement” with China during Duterte’s term that restricts Manila from sending repair materials to a World War-II era ship that’s been serving as the nation’s outpost in the Second Thomas Shoal for about a quarter of a century.

Philippine military missions that rotate and resupply troops on the ship, known as BRP Sierra Madre, have become a constant source of tension between Manila and Beijing, with Chinese vessels deploying water cannons on Philippine ships on several instances. 

Marcos said his government isn’t aware of any record of the agreement and that they were not briefed about it when he came into office in 2022. The administration is talking to former officials during Duterte’s term about the matter, but Marcos said “we still haven’t gotten a straight answer”.

Tensions with China will be at the centre of the White House summit on Thursday between President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Marcos as Washington seeks to boost cooperation among allies in the Indo-Pacific region in a bid to counter China as Beijing presses claims over Taiwan and the East and South China Seas.

There is likely to be an agreement among the three countries “in terms of maintaining security and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea”, Marcos said. The Philippine leader will also have bilateral talks with Biden on the sidelines of the summit to continue discussions on strengthening further the alliance between Manila and Washington, he said.

  - Bloomberg