By Amando Doronila
Philippine Daily Inquirer
8:27 pm | Tuesday, September 25th, 2012
The controversy over the clandestine intervention of Antonio Trillanes, a junior senator, as a mediator in our dispute with China on territories in the West Philippine Sea is far from being a spent force. It is intensifying in velocity, and the fallout is heavy. It is damaging to both Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Trillanes, who are at the center of the storm raging over the latter’s so-called “back-channeling” mission to “ease tensions” with China as President Aquino’s “special envoy” in cloak-and-dagger talks with the Chinese. Fortunately, in the interest of conducting talks properly in normal diplomatic channels, Trillanes has not yet been designated as “envoy plenipotentiary and extraordinary” of the Repulic accredited to Beijing.
The secrecy of Trillanes’ entry into the realm of diplomacy via the back door in an open, democratic society has generated heated issues over his competence and legitimacy to undertake such a delicate mission involving national security. In the Senate, the political home base of both Enrile and Trillanes, the air is heavy with accusations of “treason” (according to Enrile) on the part of Trillanes and in his alleged pushing the Chinese line in the dispute with the Philippines over the Spratlys and Scarborough Shoal, and charges of security breach on the part of Enrile for revealing confidential, or even classified, diplomatic documents, when he read into the Senate records notes taken by Philippine Ambassador to Beijing Sonia Brady. The notes reported on Trillanes’ activities related to his secret mission in Beijing, bypassing, in the process, the channels of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the official interlocutor of Philippine foreign policy.
The conflict in the Senate between Enrile and Trillanes has caught fire with the intervention of a heavyweight senator, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who said Enrile might have compromised state secrets when he disclosed notes said to have been written by Brady after an encounter with Trillanes two weeks ago. Santiago said an ambassador’s reports “are always highly confidential and are meant only for the eyes of the secretary of foreign affairs.” Whether or not Enrile revealed classified state secrets, much has already been spilled during the exchange between him and Trillanes that may have given the Chinese aid and comfort. What was said on the Senate floor is spilled milk that can no longer be put back into the bottle. At the very least, the disclosures in the Senate have given the Chinese, the international community, as well as our own people, a clear idea of how we conduct our foreign policy or how discordant we are on the territorial dispute with China.
It is clear, especially to the Chinese, that the Philippines’ entire political establishment, including the administration and the Senate, is not speaking in one voice. There is no single authoritative voice on policy on the territorial dispute with China. This cacophony of points of view from official institutional sources (Malacañang, the Senate, the DFA) is sending mixed messages to the Chinese, and revealing weaknesses in our negotiating positions (thanks to our suicidal tendencies), and they are taking advantage of these.
There are one too many channels for negotiations—a direct line from the President, through special envoys such as Trillanes, who comes from the Senate, and the normal institutional channel, the DFA, which has been undermined by Trillanes’ mission that considers itself beyond the control of the secretary of foreign affairs. This setup is confusing to our adversary and even to our institutional diplomats,who feel undercut by it.
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033
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668
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Yesterday's Philippine PCSO Draw Results
For September 25, 2012 Tuesday
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Morning edition 11am: 20-17
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Winning numbers in exact order
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Php: 4,500 per 10 peso play
6Digit Luzon
9pm: 9-8-2-7-4-6
Winning numbers in exact order
6/42 National Lottery
20-06-30-25-36-32
Current Jackpot: Php 39,138,085.80
(0)winner
Winning numbers in any order
Super 6/49 Nationwide Lotto
07-34-21-28-10-18
Current Jackpot: Php 16,000,000.00
(0)winner
Winning numbers in any order
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* = Hot Numbers
** = Very Hot Numbers
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