• Former leader agreed not to repair outpost, ex-spokesman says
• Marcos to meet with US, Japan leaders in White House

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he’s “horrified” to learn of an agreement between his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, and China that bars Manila from shipping construction materials to a military outpost in a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

“If that agreement says we need to seek permission from another country to be able to do something within our own territory, it would probably be difficult to honor that agreement,” Marcos told reporters on Wednesday. “I am horrified by the idea that we have compromised through a secret agreement the territory, the sovereignty and the sovereign rights of the Philippines,” he added.

Duterte’s former spokesperson, Harry Roque, has said the Philippines entered into a “gentleman’s agreement” with China during Duterte’s term that restricts Manila from sending repair materials to a World War-II era ship that’s been serving as the nation’s outpost in the Second Thomas Shoal for about a quarter of a century.

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