PHNO-STANDARD: CHINA HANDPICKED TRILLANES, SAYS PNoy

STANDARD: CHINA HANDPICKED TRILLANES, SAYS
PNoy

MANILA, SEPTEMBER 24, 2012
(MANILA STANDARD) By Joyce Pangco Panares - Senator
remains backdoor negotiator amid ruckus on his role.
It's now out in the open: it was China which handpicked Senator Antonio
Trillanes IV and asked him to serve as backchannel negotiator between Manila and
Beijing over conflicting territorial claims in the West Philippine Sea.
Trillanes, who was then in China, in turn called up President Benigno Aquino
III and offered his services as backchannel negotiator.
This was confirmed by Mr. Aquino himself on Friday amid accusations from
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile that Trillanes was working for China.
Mr. Aquino's statement appeared to be a turnaround of the Palace's earlier
stance, when it tried to distance itself from the senator, with presidential
spokesman Edwin Lacierda saying that Trillanes neither had blanket authority nor
plenipotentiary powers even if the senator's offer was taken up by the Palace.

Trillanes had claimed that it was Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa who asked
him to serve as the president's backchannel negotiator, which the Palace denied.

"Senator Trillanes called me up and he was in China at that time. He was
approached (and) he was asked on the possibility of him serving as backchannel
negotiator," the President said.
"So in the absence of any other channels that were existing beforehand, and
since we wanted to resolve the situation in Scarborough Shoal (Panatag Shoal), I
thought we will not lose anything if we listen to what was relayed to us. So
that was how it started," he added.
The President, however, did not say who had approached Trillanes when the
senator was in China.
But Mr. Aquino credited Trillanes and "other efforts" for bringing down the
number of Chinese vessels inside the Scarborough Shoal.
He said that before Trillanes acted as negotiator, the number of the ships
reached 30, but significantly gone down after Trillanes started talking with his
contacts.
The President said Trillanes will remain as a backchannel negotiator. He
added that he planned to talk to Trillanes about the now controversial issue.

"Well, as of now yes he is (still a backchannel negotiator) but I will have
to talk to him soon. I'm just loaded with so many things these past six weeks
now since (the flooding caused by) Habagat. I have to talk to him," Mr. Aquino
said.
Amid all these issues, Mr. Aquino also said his administration would try a
new approach towards moving forward relations with China through a
"party-to-party dialog."
He had earlier assigned Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II as special envoy
when he attends the 9th China-Asean Expo in Nanning, China. While in Nanning,
Roxas is slated to meet with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping to relay the
country's concerns on the ongoing dispute in the West Philippine Sea.
Xi is being groomed to succeed Hu Jintao as president of China.
Mr. Aquino explained that China appeared to favor Roxas to be the country's
special envoy to the 9th China-Asean Expo because he was also the head of the
Liberal Party.
"China is a one-party state. And Mar Roxas is president of the party that I
belong to," the President said.
Mr. Aquino expressed optimism that the party-to-party dialog will be able to
iron out differences between the two countries over conflicting territorial
claims in the West Philippine Sea.
Roxas left for Nanning Thursday evening, accompanied by Lacierda.
"My instructions to Secretary Roxas were very simple: ensure that our
position will be relayed to the highest levels of the leadership of the Peoples'
Republic of China so that everything is clear and nothing is lost in
translation," Mr. Aquino said.
"We want to make it clear where we are coming from, our concerns and
expectations. If China responds, well and good. If not, at least we are able to
explain our side," the President added.
In a separate interview, Roxas said the discussions with Xi will not cover
the back-channel efforts of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
Mr. Aquino was supposed to meet Hu during the 20th Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation in Vladivostok two weeks ago but the bilateral dialog did not push
through.
Mr. Aquino said he would have wanted to have a "frank exchange of thoughts"
with his Chinese counterpart.
The President said he and Hu could "divorce diplomatic niceties" so that both
sides can really understand each other's position on the territorial disputes in
the West Philippine Sea.
Roxas' trip to Nanning comes at a time when Beijing appears to be taking a
"conciliatory approach' with its Southeast Asian neighbors, in sharp contrast to
angry rhetoric targeting Japan over disputed islands.
According to an AP report, Xi had emphasized economic ties and civic
exchanges in remarks Friday to delegates from the ASEAN during the Expo. He also
avoided mentioning South China Sea territorial disputes with the Philippines,
Vietnam and others that have recently flared again.
That's in sharp contrast with recent violent protests in China and angry
statements directed at Japan over islands in the East China Sea that both
countries claim.
Meanwhile, a source said it was not clear who paid for Trillanes' trip to
China when he called up Mr. Aquino, since it happened before he was tapped as
backchannel negotiator.
Trillanes claimed the Palace paid for his 16 trips to China when he assumed
the role of informal negotiator.
Referring to the notes from Philippine Ambassador to China Sonia Brady,
Enrile accused Trillanes of "protecting the Chinese" and wanted the Department
of Foreign Affairs to "quiet down" on the Panatag Shoal issue.
Trillanes also reportedly said "no one cares about Panatag Shoal in the
Philippines" and that Beijing wanted Manila to tone down its rhetoric on Chinese
incursions in the disputed area.
Meanwhile, Albay Rep. Al Francis Bicharra, chairman of the House Committee on
Foreign Affairs, said that regardless of whether Malacanang or the People's
Republic of China had initiated backdoor channeling to resolve the territorial
dispute with the two countries, Trillanes had no business at all to meddle and
muddle the proper diplomatic process that should be followed by the Philippine
government.
"The way things stand right now, Trillanes' intrusion in the diplomatic
process was uncalled for and caused a major diplomatic ruckus that could have
been avoided in the first place," Bichara told the Manila Standard.
Bichara added the Department of Foreign Affairs and its experienced diplomats
could have done better as they would be able to present a unified position of
the Philippine government on the territorial dispute with China.
Vice President Jejomar Binay also defended del Rosario from earlier claims by
Trillanes that the country's top diplomat had committed "treason" and was not
doing his job.
"The official (foreign) policy comes from Secretary del Rosario. Then you
have someone calling him a traitor. That's rather unfortunate," Binay said.
"He is correctly guiding our foreign policy. And he speaks for the President
in matters of foreign policy. It saddens me that this has happened," he added.

But House Assistant Deputy Majority Leader and Rep. Sherwin Tugna of the
Citizens Battle against Corruption said that it was the sole prerogative of
President Benigno Aquino III to choose the delegation of envoy to negotiate on
behalf of the country.
"He can appoint anyone on top of the DFA," said Tugna, a lawyer and member of
the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Meanwhile, Tugna believed that the treason case filed against President
Aquino and Trillanes (see related story) would not prosper.
"It lacks the element of giving aid to the enemy country and it must be in
times of war," Tugna said.
"Trillanes did not give aid to China. His statements, admitting that it is
true, are strategies of our country and did not give any aid to China," Tugna
said. With Maricel V. Cruz


Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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rights reserved




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