Former Department of National Defense (DND) secretary Delfin Lorenzana (left), former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea

Former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea denied allegations that former president Rodrigo Duterte entered into a "gentleman's agreement" with Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying the Filipino leader would have known that it was a risky proposition. 

"Of these two official meetings I attended, no gentleman’s agreement ever took place between former president Duterte and President Xi," Medialdea said in his opening remarks during the joint panel hearing Tuesday, May 21, on the alleged "gentleman’s agreement" in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). 

"President Duterte, being a lawyer, knew fully well that it was foolhardy to enter into an agreement, especially a gentleman’s agreement at that, with the President of the People’s Republic of China on matters involving sovereign rights," he told the two panels conducting the inquiry, namely the House Committee on National Defense and the House Special Committee on the West Philippine Sea. 

Also attending the hearing as resource persons were former Department of National Defense (DND) secretary Delfin Lorenzana and former National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon. 

The joint panel had sought the attendance of the three former Duterte administration officials to shed light on the alleged secret pact, which some House members have claimed was the basis of Beijing’s bellicose behavior in the WPS. 

Of the three officials, it's Medialdea who would have spent the most time working with then-president Duterte. The executive secretary's post is often described by insiders as "little president". 

"Former president Duterte and President Xi Jingping had eight official meetings during the period October 2016 to August 2019.  

"In all the eight official meetings, he was always accompanied by his incumbent Foreign Affairs secretaries namely: the late secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr., then acting secretary, now Secretary Enrique Manalo; secretary, now Senator Alan Peter Cayetano; and secretary, now Ambassador Teodoro Locsin Jr.," Medialdea said.. 

Duterte asserted Philippine claim to Xi 

Lorenzana gave the House members insight on how Duterte and interacted with Xi when it comes to the two countries' maritime dispute. 

"I have attended practically all the meetings between President Duterte and President Xi from the first time that we met in 2016 until the last time that they met, I think, 2019," the ex-DND chief recalled. 

"It was very telling that, at their last meeting in 2019, President Duterte asserted in front of everybody in the bilateral meeting, that he's asserting the rights of the Philippines over the [WPS], on the basis of the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) in the arbitral ruling," he said. 

According to Lorenzana, Xi responded by saying that China also claims the area. Before ending the conversation on WPS, Xi reportedly told Duterte: "We cannot resolve this matter within our lifetime, but maybe our children and grandchildren will be smart enough to find a solution." 

"So that's how he (Xi) stated it. I think Executive Secretary Medialdia remembered that very well also,," Lorenzana said.