President Rodrigo Duterte has no verbal fishing agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the West Philippine Sea, Malacanang said on Friday.

"There is no truth to the speculation of a purported 'verbal fishing agreement' between President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and President Xi Jinping, nor that Chinese vessels were encouraged to stay in West Philippine Sea despite the diplomatic protests and strongly worded statements of Philippine government officials," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

"This is without basis and is quite simply, conjecture," he added.

Roque's statement came after retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio urged Duterte for a detailed explanation of his supposed verbal fishing deal with Xi.

Carpio has said the public has the right to know how many Chinese fishing vessels are allowed in the West Philippines Sea and the months of the year that the Chinese are allowed to catch fish and the allowable fish catch in tonnage that they can take from the Philippine exclusive economic zone.

In his recent "Talk to the People," Duterte said he did not care so much about the fish in the West Philippine Sea amid the presence of numerous Chinese fishing vessels in the area.

He has said that he would confront China only if it starts drilling oil in the West Philippine Sea.

Roque, who is a lawyer by profession, said that a fishing agreement under the domestic laws can only be done through a treaty.

"Per Article 2 (1) (a) of the Vienna Convention on the Law on Treaties, a treaty is an international agreement concluded between States in written form. Clearly, a treaty must be in writing. No such treaty or agreement exists between the Philippines and China," he said.

Roque said Duterte does not condone unlawful commercial fishing by any state on Philippine waters.

"However, the President also recognizes that subsistence (non-commercial) fishing may be allowed as a recognition of the traditional fishing rights pointed out by the Arbitral Tribunal itself in its Award on Jurisdiction (para. 407) in the case between the Philippines and China," he said.

"Let us therefore stop making malicious speculations and false claims made to pointlessly inflame the situation. We ask everyone to just focus our time and effort on productive activities that will enable us help one another at this time of pandemic," Roque stressed.

Roque's statement, however, contradicted the explanation in 2019 by his predecessor Salvador Panelo, who is also the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel.

Panelo said then that the verbal fishing agreement between Duterte and Xi was "legally binding" for as long as there was a mutual consent between the two parties.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has filed several diplomatic protests against China for the continuous presence of Chinese vessels near Julian Felipe Reef, which is within the Philippine EEZ, despite repeated demands for them to leave the area. Celerina Monte/DMS