Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said Sunday that the 'gentleman’s agreement' former President Rodrigo Duterte had with China concerning Ayungin Shoal is “unconstitutional” and not binding.

In an interview with dzBB, Pimentel said it would be good for both chambers of Congress to probe into Duterte’s verbal deal with China so lawmakers could make a clear policy on similar agreements.

“I think the effect of this agreement is that there were lesser tensions (in the South China Sea) because (former) President Duterte fulfilled his personnel commitment. But his term is finished and there is a different president…there is a new policy,” Pimentel said.

“If the legislature conducts hearings on this, we can clarify that we are discouraging our leaders, even if he is the chief architect of the foreign policy, to avoid entering into a verbal, unrecorded, and informal agreement. We should avoid this because the system of our Philippine Constitution, most likely, agreements like that are unconstitutional,” he added.

Pimentel said since there is no written record of the agreement, it is not binding to the current administration.

“First of all, we do not know which process to follow since it is unrecorded. We don’t have any evidence of it. So what is this? Is this a treaty? Is this an international agreement? Is this an executive agreement?” Pimentel said.

“One of the principles of our Constitution is transparency. Even when it comes to ordinary transactions, if it is not written down, it is not binding,” he said.

“Verbal agreements are no longer relevant to this period. The executive branch can say that they will no longer continue the deal because they respected the six-year term of the previous president,” he added.

It can be recalled that former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque revealed that Duterte had a “gentleman’s agreement” with China, wherein he promised no construction materials but only food and water supplies would be sent to troops stationed in the BRP Sierra Madre which is grounded in Ayungin Shoal. Jaspearl Tan/DMS