South China Sea: Philippines’ Marcos ‘horrified’ by Xi-Duterte ‘gentleman’s agreement’ for status quo in disputed waters

“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.

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.”

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.