The Philippines and China have reached a "friendly" understanding allowing Filipinos to fish around a disputed shoal seized by Beijing in 2012, a senior aide to President Rodrigo Duterte said Monday.
Duterte negotiated the understanding during his recent meeting in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping, said Manila's national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon.
As a result, he said, in recent days Filipino fishermen have been able to fish unmolested at Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea while Chinese government vessels have patrolled nearby.
"There is no agreement... but our president believes that our fishermen will no longer be harassed because he already brought up this matter" during his visit to China, Esperon told the media.
"The coastguard of China is there, but their navy is gone. And now, our fishermen are no longer being accosted, no longer being forced out, so we can say things are now friendly," he added.
China took control of Scarborough Shoal, 230 kilometres (140 miles) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon, in 2012. It had been driving away Filipino fishermen from the rich fishing ground, sometimes using water cannon.
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