Press Release
June 30, 2019

Dispatch from Crame No. 546:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima on Duterte's secret deal opening our EEZ to China

6/30/19

Duterte's admission that he struck a deal with China in 2016 allowing Chinese fishermen to fish in our EEZ is a shocking revelation. This means that Duterte secretly entered into a bilateral fisheries agreement that should properly have been the subject of an international treaty because it lays down new policy not established by legislation. Worse, it is a secret executive agreement that violates the Constitutional provision which reserves the Philippines' EEZ exclusively to Filipinos.

No executive agreement or even international treaty can supersede the Constitution because the power to enter into executive agreements and international treaties is derived from the Constitution. This power simply cannot rise above its source. It cannot supplant or discard it.

Since the Constitution is the social contract that gives the President the power to enter into executive agreements and the Senate to concur in the ratification of international treaties, neither the President nor the Senate can treat the Constitution as "toilet paper" - as Duterte has so described our fundamental law with so much contempt.

Mr. Duterte, labis-labis ang drama mo sa paghalik sa bandila ng Pilipinas, pero wagas din naman ang iyong pambabastos sa dokumentong nagsasalamin ng ating pagka-bansa at nagtatag ng Republikang iyong kinakatawan. Kung "toilet paper" din lang ang trato mo sa dokumentong nagbigay sa iyo ng kapangyarihan, lumayas ka na diyan sa Malacañang.

What is worse is that if Duterte has managed to enter into a secret deal with China that, like the Treaty of Paris, has sold our nation like a sack of potatoes, this time to the Chinese, what other secret deals, executive agreements, or international treaties has he concluded with China behind our backs and without the knowledge of the Senate and the sovereign Filipino people?

Do these secret deals include the Chinese invasion of our labor sector and the Chinese take-over of urban space in Metro Manila? Do these include a presidential guarantee of submission to whatever China wants in exchange for personal financial gain? Do these include Chinese material aid and promise to prop up Duterte's chosen successor as the next Chinese puppet?

Ang lihim na pagbenta sa karagatang ating sinasakupan ay maituturing na pinakamataas na uri ng pagtatraydor sa bayan. Kung lihim na naibenta ni Duterte sa Tsina ang ating karagatan, ano pa ang pipigil sa kanya na palihim na rin niyang ibenta ang ating lupang teritoryo sa kanila?

Ang pagmamahal ni Duterte ay hindi sa bayan, kung hindi sa sarili lamang. Kaya tayo ay pambalato lamang niya sa Tsina.

Every time Duterte kisses the Philippine flag, he secretly spits on it, to hide the contempt he has for this nation.

(Access the handwritten copy of Dispatch from Crame No. 546, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_from_crame_no._546)

News Latest News Feed