Palace: China not honoring 2012 pact to pull out from Scarborough no reason to doubt its sincerity

China's failure to honor a 2012 agreement with the Philippines for both countries to simultaneously pull out vessels from Scarborough Shoal amid a prolonged standoff does not mean it cannot be trusted, Malacañang said Tuesday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, Jr. made the response when asked about the weight of China's words, considering that it already reneged on the agreement, brokered by the United States government, in the past.

"Ang sinasabi po ni Presidente Duterte, kung Presidente siya noong mga panahon na iyon, hindi siya aalis na una; umalis muna ang Tsina. Pero that is history. So hindi po iyan dahilan para sabihin you cannot trust China,"  Roque said.

(What the President is saying is that if he had been President at the time, he would not have had the Philippines withdraw first. It should have been China. But that is history, so it is not a reason to say China cannot be trusted.)

"We have to give the assumption of good faith particularly to our neighbor," Roque added.

But asked why the Duterte administration blames the Aquino administration over "losing" Scarborough Shoal to China instead of calling out China for failing to comply with an agreement, Roque conceded that it was wrong to trust China then.

"Eh hindi po natin kontrolado kung ano ang gagawin ng Tsino eh. Ang importante kontrolado natin kung ano ang gagawin ng opisyales ng ating bayan at siguro nagkamali sila ng pagtiwala na talagang magpu-pullout ang lahat," Roque said.

(We cannot control what China does. What is important is we are in control of what we do and maybe they were wrong in trusting that everybody would pull out.)

This Scarborough incident prompted the Aquino administration to sue China before the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration in 2013.

In a July 2016 ruling, the Permanent Court of Arbitration rejected China's claim of sovereignty in the entire South China Sea and outlawed China's aggression against Filipino fisherfolk in Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground.

The same Hague court decision also ruled that the Spratly Islands, Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal and Recto (Reed) Bank are within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone. — BM, GMA News