THREE Duterte administration officials were a no-show in the first hearing of two committees of the House of Representatives on the supposed secret agreement between former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Ayungin Shoal.
The former officials, whom the committee on national defense and security and the special committee on the West Philippine Sea (WPS) invited, were then executive secretary Salvador Medialdea, Duterte’s national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon, and then defense chief Delfin Lorenzana, who now heads the Bases Conversion and Development Authority.
Duterte himself was not invited to the initial hearing.
Iloilo Rep. Raul Tupas, defense committee vice chairman, who presided over the inquiry jointly with special WPS panel chairman Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali “Boyet” Gonzales II, instructed the committee secretariat to issue another invitation to Medialdea, Esperon and Lorenzana.
Zambales Rep. Jefferson Khonghun, whose House Resolution (HR) 1684 prompted the investigation, said it appeared that the Duterte officials were avoiding the probe.
“Parang umiiwas sila. Lahat may excuse. Nagtataka ako kung ano ang dapat nilang iwasan. Huwag silang umiwas, kasi sovereignty and national territory ang pinag-uusapan dito,” he said.
Tupas informed Khonghun that the three former officials claimed they had prior engagements.
Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel said the two committees should use the subpoena power of the House to compel Medialdea, Esperon and Lorenzana to attend the inquiry.
“They are the important actors in this investigation. We cannot get the answers we need from officials of the current administration, because they were not involved in the alleged secret agreement,” he said.
Another House member, Rep. Romeo Acop of Antipolo City, suggested that the three officials be required to explain their absence prior to taking any action against them.
A third House member, Rep. France Castro of ACT Teachers Party-list, proposed that Duterte himself be invited to the next hearing.
Gonzales told his colleagues that there has been a lot of speculation on the supposed Duterte’s 2016 agreement with his Chinese counterpart.
“I myself have asserted that this alleged secret agreement is constitutionally void and non-binding. Ayungin Shoal is within our country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ),” he said.
He said the supposed secret accord is being used by China to spread the “false narrative that it is the Philippines that is causing tension in the West Philippine Sea.”
“Ayungin is part of our EEZ. We are just protecting what is clearly ours to protect,” he said.
Representatives of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of National Defense, Department of Justice, National Security Council, and the Philippine Coast Guard told the two committees that they were not aware and have not seen a copy of the alleged Duterte-Xi agreement.
They said President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., in August last year, declared that he was rescinding such accord if it existed.
Responding to a question from Rep. Rodge Gutierrez of 1-Rider Party-list, a DOJ representative said “academically,” the Duterte-Xi deal was illegal if it provided that the Philippines would “suspend” its exercise of its sovereign rights over Ayungin Shoal.
Duterte has admitted that he had an understanding with his Chinese counterpart about maintaining the status quo in Ayungin — “walang galawan, walang movement…there.”
Marcos has said he was “horrified by the idea that we have compromised, through a secret agreement, the territory, the sovereignty, and the sovereign rights of the Filipinos.”
He said his administration received no information from previous officials about the alleged deal. “We don’t know anything about it. There is no documentation, there is no record, there is no… we were not briefed when I came into office. Walang man lang nagsabi sa amin na may ganoong usapan,” he said.
