At wit’s end

Desperate Chinese diplomats in Manila doubled down last week on their claims of a “new model” China allegedly forged with the Marcos government with regard to the resupply missions to Ayungin Shoal. A doubling down which led Chinese diplomats to frantically reveal a recording of a supposed phone call between a Chinese diplomat and a senior Philippine Navy official.

This evolving “new model” tale which Chinese diplomats trotted out last week, however, has already elicited vehement refutations and denunciations from Filipino diplomatic and security officials.

Meanwhile, independent journalists — noting how normally reticent Chinese diplomats have been curiously reaching out recently to Filipino newspapers — strongly suspect that China is launching some sort of psywar meant solely “to further confuse.”

Nonetheless, the Chinese diplomats in detailing the “new model” inadvertently wove a murky tale of their surreptitious efforts to bypass the highest levels of the Marcos government.

A point that the Foreign Affairs department promptly and categorically clarified is that only President Marcos, not even Cabinet officials, can approve or authorize agreements on the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

The clarification also came after China’s foreign ministry officially said the supposed

“These

‘two arrangements’ were identified by the Chinese diplomat as an ‘internal arrangement’ and a ‘new model.’

“new model” agreement which the Philippines must honor was reached “after multiple rounds of discussions through diplomatic channels and the AFP WesCom.”

(WesCom is the military’s Western Command headquartered in Palawan which covers the WPS. Supply missions to contested areas in the WPS, however, are under the direct and strict control of Task Force WPS under National Security Adviser Eduard Año, not WesCom).

With the way things stand, there is need for a clearer picture of this latest Chinese caper since the Chinese diplomats seem to have purposively disseminated details of this “new mode” to different Philippine newspapers after making it public last week.

Initial details of this “new mode” seemed to have emerged last Labor Day when a ranking Chinese diplomat told two reporters about China’s supposed two new arrangements with the current administration.

These “two arrangements” were identified by the Chinese

diplomat as

“Only President Marcos, not even Cabinet officials, can approve or authorize agreements on the West Philippine Sea.

an “internal arrangement” and a “new model.” Both arrangements supposedly had the “approval of the highest chain of command,” claimed the diplomat.

The “internal arrangement,” the official claimed, was with the Philippines’ special envoy to China (and ambassador to the Court of St. James’s) Teodoro Locsin Jr. Nothing yet is known about this.

But further details of the “new mode” surprisingly emerged last Tuesday when a Chinese diplomat allowed two reporters to hear a purported two-minute excerpt from an allegedly 12-minute phone call last January between a Chinese diplomat and the WesCom chief.

At the time of the alleged call, the Wescom chief was Navy Vice Admiral Alberto Carlos, who has since taken a “personal leave,” the military said.

Curiously, before the phone call revelations, a Chinese diplomat told two reporters last week “we have communication. We have text, video, and Viber messages. We hope we don’t get to the point of having to show these proofs.”

What made the Chinese diplomats change their minds and go public remains a mystery.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro has threatened deportation of the Chinese diplomats for violating the AntiWiretapping Law.

At any rate, the Chinese diplomats claimed the “new model” arrangement entailed a “1+1 model for both sides.” This meant Filipino officials would deploy only one Philippine Coast Guard vessel and one resupply vessel to Ayungin Shoal while China would deploy only one Chinese Coast Guard ship and a fishing boat.

Other alleged points were the Philippine government would notify Beijing of a resupply mission two days prior; the Philippines would send only food and water supplies to the troops on the grounded BRP Sierra Madre; and the Philippines and China would maintain close communications during the resupply missions.

All these, in the end, are Chinese points of view. We can purposely be skeptical or even confused about what purposes these serve.

But one thing is clear: China is now at it wit’s end over the WPS issue.