STANDARD: VICE PRESIDENT BINAY BLASTS TRILLANES
FOR DISRESPECT
MANILA, SEPTEMBER 24, 2012
(MANILA STANDARD) By Joyce Pangco Panares - Veep blasts
Trillanes for disrespect, says nation can do without him
Vice President Jejomar Binay on Sunday said the country could do without the
likes of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who is running for re-election next year.
At the anniversary of the 365 Club at the Hotel Inter-Continental, Binay, who
heads the opposition United Nationalist Alliance, took Trillanes to task for
disrespecting Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Foreign Affairs Secretary
Albert del Rosario.
After his role as a back-channel negotiator with China was exposed, Trillanes
accused Enrile of being a lackey of former President and now Pampanga Rep.
Gloria Arroyo. He also called Del Rosario a traitor.
Binay's spokesman, Joey Salgado, said the vice president was amplifying the
sentiments of Enrile and ousted President Joseph Estrada, who are the other two
leaders of the UNA.
Enrile vowed to expose Trillanes' clandestine activities in behalf of China
in the run-up to the 2013 mid-term elections.
It was Enrile who helped Trillanes, who had led several failed coup attempts
against Arroyo, get out of jail and serve his first term as senator.
Estrada called Trillanes a boastful ingrate.
Binay said he felt sorry for Trillanes and urged him to reassess his actions.
He said he was saddened by Trillanes' statements against Del Rosario, who was
"correctly guiding" the country's foreign policy.
"Secretary del Rosario is a hardworking government official. We had trouble
in Syria and Libya and he was there. He is really a man of action," Binay said.
Binay said being disrespectful appeared to be part of Trillanes' personality
since he showed the same lack of courtesy when he interrogated the late Armed
Forces chief Gen. Angelo Reyes.
In a separate radio interview on Sunday, Trillanes urged Enrile to keep quiet
and challenged him again to file a case against him if he felt he had committed
a crime.
Trillanes also recalled Enrile's role during the martial law years, when he
served as Defense secretary for the strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
"Remember, this is the person who faked his ambush, and we are to believe him
like a Santo Papa [Pope]?" Trillanes told radio dzBB, referring to a staged
attack that Marcos used as a pretext to declare martial law in 1972.
He called Enrile a "manipulator" who maneuvered investigations to suit his
interests and his patrons.
Trillanes insisted that, as a back-channel negotiator, he did not need to
clear any of his actions with Del Rosario, even though the Palace had said he
had no blanket authority to make any deals.
"It is not my responsibility to talk to Del Rosario," Trillanes said.
"Why should I coordinate with him? I am not working under him. Maybe if I was
a functionary of the Executive branch, perhaps that can be."
President Benigno Aquino III earlier confirmed that China approached
Trillanes and asked him to serve as a backchannel negotiator between Manila and
Beijing to diffuse the tensions over the conflicting territorial claims in the
West Philippine Sea. Mr. Aquino, however, did not say who spoke to Trillanes
from China's end.
The Palace also remained silent over Trillanes' claim that it had paid for
his trips to China.
A Palace spokesman last week said the President had sent Trillanes a text
message asking him to stop issuing statements in the wake of his word war with
Enrile.
In his radio interview Sunday, however, Trillanes thanked the President for
defending him and acknowledging the job he did.
He also reiterated his accusation that Enrile was pressuring senators to pass
a bill that would split the province of Camarines Sur, a move that he said would
benefit Arroyo.
He said Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III and Senate President
Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada called him Monday last week and asked him to
withdraw his opposition to the bill so it could be passed in time for the filing
of the certificates of candidacies for the next election.
"So how can they say that there was no pressure to pass this bill?" he said.
He also refused to vacate his membership in several Senate committees, saying
his party, the Nacionalistas, would decide how many of the panels it was
entitled to head.
"They should bring it to vote in the plenary to remove me. Why would I give
up [the committee], I'm entitled to that," Trillanes said.
Trillanes had earlier admitted seeking to oust Enrile as Senate president, a
bid that none of his colleagues supported.
The Nacionalistas disowned the bid to oust Enrile, describing it as "the
effort of one senator." With Macon Ramos-Araneta
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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