Back-channel bakbakan

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By Greg B. Macabenta

THE HUE and cry over the reported back-channel discussions that Senator Antonio Trillanes IV held with China may have given the impression that this was a new and unheard of diplomatic tactic employed by the government.

In truth, "back-channeling" is as normal to governments and politicians as breathing in and breathing out.

To appreciate the dynamics of the back channel, it’s important to understand that what governments and politicians declare in their speeches and on-the-record statements may be different from what they do outside the glare of media and the public eye.

Recall how then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger used back-channel diplomacy to initiate talks between the US and China. Publicly, neither country was willing to admit any interest in reaching out to each other.

Sworn enemies like Iran and the Unites States find it in their best interests to maintain a communications channel -- albeit unofficial and, thus, in a virtual back room -- to make sure that nervous fingers do not unnecessarily pull the trigger, or to find an opening for rapprochement.

By definition, resorting to the back channel demands absolute confidentiality. It also allows for "deniability" -- a term that became a buzzword in the US during the Iran-Contra Senate inquiry involving President Ronald Reagan and Marine Lt. Colonel Oliver North.

Among politicians, using the back channel to make deals comes naturally and is, just as naturally, tied to a scratch-my-back arrangement, as in, "you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours." Of course, the "back room" is the more common term for such a process. But, whether back channel or back room, it’s all the same. Unofficial. Discreet. Necessary. And sometimes illicit.

No less than President Noynoy Aquino conjectured that the midnight appointment of Renato Corona as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was part of a back room-cum-back channel-cum-scratch-my-back strategy concocted by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to ensure her acquittal, in case the incoming administration decided to exact retribution for her sins in office.

Apparently, Trillanes suspected that Congressman Luis Villafuerte and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile were using the back channel to facilitate the splitting of Camarines Sur into two provinces, the better for the warring Villafuerte father and son to have their own private provincial preserves. Whatever the suspected scratch-my-back tradeoff was, Trillanes didn’t like it.

At any rate, to go back to the Trillanes back-channel activities with China, while the tactic is as normal as a Henry Kissinger gambit, the one thing diplomats and responsible public officials do not do is to announce it to the public, much less read private notes into the Senate records -- unless an official inquiry is being conducted.

In times of war, folks who do that -- including senators and senate presidents -- are marched before a firing squad and shot.

We understand that the conflict between Trillanes and Enrile was sparked when the former, a Bicolano, accused the latter of making a deal with Villafuerte to split CamSur.

Trillanes, already notorious for shooting from the hip (remember the botched military mutiny over a decade ago?), should not have started shooting from the lip -- not when the target is a master of DDT like Enrile (remember the fake ambush that triggered martial law?).

Not surprisingly, instead of trashing Trillanes on the same issue of splitting CamSur, Enrile pulled out a rabbit from his hat: incriminating notes on Trillanes’ "shuttle diplomacy" with China.

Did Enrile give some thought to the embarrassment to which he would expose the country and the president, along with Trillanes? Hadn’t he heard of the adage about cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?

Apparently not. Apparently, hell hath no fury like an irate Enrile -- and the heck with national dignity and national security.

On the other hand, one can’t help but admire the skill of Ponce Enrile’s PR team. Notice how Trillanes has had to bear the brunt of media brickbats, in spite of the fact that it was Enrile who broke Rule Number One in Back Channeling: Don’t hang out the dirty underwear!

Of course, Trillanes’ response to Enrile’s indiscretion was his own violation of Rule Number Two: Don’t hang out your used condoms!

That’s not the end of the back-channel bakbakan. The repercussions caused by the quarrel of two over-aged juvenile delinquents, who unfortunately happen to be senators of the land, have just begun.

Like a drunken cowboy making whoopee with his six-shooter, Trillanes has taken potshots at Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario, business magnate Manny Pangilinan and the United States, aside from Enrile. In the process, Trillanes has also exposed Noynoy Aquino’s own clumsy attempt at back-channeling.

Aquino has had to admit having authorized Trillanes to conduct talks with the Chinese. And he did it -- in a demonstration of poor judgment -- without the knowledge of his Secretary of Foreign Affairs. That’s like Barack Obama authorizing a senator to initiate talks with Iran behind the back of his own Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

On the other hand, Trillanes, in a display of arrogance and disrespect, didn’t bother to let the Senate President in on the arrangement.

Didn’t Aquino trust his chief diplomat? Did he actually think there was some grain of truth to Trillanes’ depiction of Del Rosario as a traitor, selling out the country to the Americans?

That was bad enough. But what made it worse was that Del Rosario was negotiating the treacherous waters of international diplomacy, trying to leverage the mutually distrustful, albeit mutually beneficial relations between America and China.

The scuttlebutt is that Del Rosario is so upset, he is seriously considering resigning. Can we blame him for doing so?

Unfortunately, it will the country’s loss if he steps down -- not that the bona fide anti-Americans care.

But whether the nationalists -- both genuine and pseudo -- like it or not, in dealing with the Chinese bully, it helps to have America on our side. And it’s sheer naivete to think that the US will protect the Philippines for reasons other than its own national interests.

Meanwhile, back to the back channel bakbakan (brawl): Who will come out the winner. Trillanes? Enrile? Aquino? Del Rosario? It depends on who can spin it best.

But there’s no doubt about the loser. The Philippines.