Q: During an interview on 10 April, President Marcos said he doesn’t know anything about the “gentleman’s agreement” regarding Ren’ai Jiao issue between China and the Philippines. He went on to say that he was horrified by the idea that we (the Philippines) have compromised through a secret agreement the territory, sovereignty, and sovereign rights of the Philippines. “If that agreement says we have to ask permission from other countries in order to navigate our own territory, that kind of agreement would probably be difficult to follow”, says the President. What is the Embassy’s comment on this?

A: China always believes that territorial disputes should be settled peacefully through negotiation. And before the territorial disputes are settled, differences should be properly managed through dialogue and consultation to maintain peace and stability.

All these years, China has been exploring, with previous administrations and the current government of the Philippines, the pragmatic way to effectively manage the situation of Ren’ai Jiao without prejudice to either country’s principled position on the dispute. Thanks to the understandings and agreements reached by the two sides, the overall peace and stability at Ren’ai Jiao was maintained in the past few years. And also because the understandings and agreements were no longer adhered to, the situation around Ren’ai Jiao became difficult and incidents happened once and again.

We hope and urge the Philippine side to value and honor their commitments, abide by the consensus, and return as soon as possible to the right track of properly managing the situation through dialogue and consultation.