Senate inquiry into China fishing deal sought
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Leila de Lima has called on the Senate to look into the supposed fishing deal between President Rodrigo Duterte and Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2016.
Duterte earlier bared that he and Xi agreed that China would no longer deny access to Filipino fishermen in Scarborough or Panatag Shoal while Chinese fishermen will be allowed to fish in Reed or Recto Bank in the West Philippine Sea.
The two leaders, however, did not sign any document on this supposed fishing deal as they had a "verbal agreement."
De Lima filed Senate Resolution 64 directing the appropriate Senate committee to conduct an inquiry into the fishing deal between Duterte and Xi and determine its exact nature and parameters.
"There is an issue of whether the fishing agreement is an executive agreement or international treaty, and corollarily, on whether or not there is a need for Senate concurrence before it becomes valid and effective," De Lima said.
In the resolution, the senator stressed that there is a need to verify the existence of the supposed fishing agreement and demand for full transparency of its exact nature.
"It behooves the Senate to ensure that all treaties and international agreements entered into in behalf of our country are in accordance with our Constitution and will redound to the benefit of our people," she said.
De Lima also echoed the previous statement of Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, who argued in the Senate that the nature and details of the agreement must be known first.
Last week, Drilon and neophyte Sen. Francis Tolentino engaged into a debate on Duterte's verbal agreement with Xi.
In a privilege speech, Tolentino argued that Duterte has the power to "validly enter into legally binding international verbal agreements with other states for and on behalf of the Philippines."
In response to Tolentino, who insisted that the fishing deal does not need Senate concurrence, Drilon pointed out that the parameters of the oral agreement were unknown and there was no way to determine if it was valid under international or domestic law.
"Since we do not know the parameters of the agreement, how can we come up with the conclusion that the agreement does not need Senate concurrence?" Drilon said.
Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio had urged the Senate to act on the fishing deal between the Philippines and China.
The senior magistrate insisted that the verbal agreement between Duterte and Xi could be considered as an international agreement.
"Under the Constitution, that has to be ratified by the Senate before it can be implemented. What's happening now is it's being implemented without the approval of the Senate," Carpio told ANC on July 23.
Under Section 4, Article XVIII of the 1987 Constitution, "All existing treaties or international agreements which have not been ratified shall not be renewed or extended without the concurrence of at least two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate."
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