Read this in The Manila Times digital edition.
DID President Joseph Ejercito Estrada promise to remove the BRP Sierra Madre, the dilapidated World War 2 vessel he had run aground in Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal in November 1999, to serve as a military outpost for less than a dozen Marines flying the Philippine flag as a token symbol of Philippine sovereignty over the disputed atoll?
Chinese government spokesmen claim Estrada did, even though Estrada's two senator sons, Jinggoy Estrada and JV Ejercito, and his former defense chief, Orly Mercado, dismiss the claim as unfounded and absurd. Manila Times columnist Rigoberto Tiglao, without offering any source for his own claim, said there was such a promise, and that at the 2013 Asean foreign ministers meeting in Brunei, this matter came up in an alleged conversation between the Philippine foreign secretary Albert del Rosario and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
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