00:00 "Go, go, I'll talk to the former officials and the civil..."
00:03 Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
00:05 labeled the so-called "Gentleman's Agreement"
00:07 between the previous administration and China
00:10 as a secret deal that is deliberately hidden from the public.
00:14 "A Gentleman's Agreement was reached during the Duterte administration..."
00:19 Marcos was asked about the agreement in a press conference
00:22 at the end of his three-day visit to the United States on Friday.
00:26 "With the confirmation of the Chinese embassy,
00:30 we now know that there was a secret agreement.
00:34 Now, this is the second question that I have,
00:36 is what is contained in that secret agreement?"
00:40 He urged the media and public to pressure his predecessor,
00:43 Rodrigo Duterte, to clarify the pact.
00:46 "Whatever foreign policy we undertook vis-à-vis South China Sea,
00:50 West Philippine Sea,
00:52 was just continuing our foreign policy of maintaining the peace
00:58 and promoting the national interest.
01:01 It was the secret agreement, gentlemanly or otherwise,
01:08 was not... we were not informed about it.
01:11 So, you should... can you please...
01:14 I ask members of all our media,
01:18 can you go to the former officials in the Duterte administration
01:24 and ask them who were the cabinet secretaries,
01:27 who knows about this,
01:28 what was the process and what happened?"
01:31 Last month, Duterte's former spokesman, Harry Roque,
01:35 said Duterte and China had a deal to maintain the status quo
01:38 in the West Philippine Sea,
01:40 which is to refrain from building and repairing any structure in the area.
01:45 On Friday, the Chinese embassy in Manila
01:47 confirmed the gentlemen's agreement,
01:49 saying that it had effectively helped maintain overall peace and stability
01:53 in the Iong-gin Shoal.
01:55 They said the agreement was followed
01:57 in the beginning of the Marcos administration,
01:59 but had ceased since February last year.
02:03 Duterte denied conceding anything to China in the agreement,
02:06 and he said what his administration did was to maintain the status quo.
02:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]
02:20 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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