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A spokesperson at China's embassy in Manila said on April 18
that the two had agreed early this year to a "new model" in
managing tensions at the Second Thomas Shoal, without
elaborating.
Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on Saturday
his department was "not aware of, nor is it a party to, any
internal agreement with China" since President Ferdinand Marcos
Jr took office in 2022. Defence department officials have not
spoken to any Chinese officials since last year, Teodoro said in
a statement.
China's embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a
request for comment on Teodoro's comments outside office hours.
Beijing and Manila have repeatedly clashed in recent months at
the submerged reef, which Philippines says is in its exclusive
economic zone but which China also claims.
The Philippines had accused China of blocking maneuvers and
firing water cannons at its vessels to disrupt supply missions
to Filipino soldiers stationed in a naval ship which Manila
deliberately grounded in 1999 to bolster its maritime claims.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a conduit for
more than $3 trillion in annual ship commerce. Its claims
overlap with those of the Philippines and four other nations. In
2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague said
China's claims had no legal basis, a decision Beijing rejects.
Teodoro called China's claims of a bilateral agreement "part of
the Chinese propaganda", adding that the Philippines would never
enter into any agreement that would compromise its claims in the
waterway.
"The narrative that unnamed or unidentified Chinese officials
are propagating is another crude attempt to advance a
falsehood," he said.
(Reporting by Mikhail Flores; Editing by William Mallard)
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