JPE hints at espionage over solon’s Sino caper

By Angie M. Rosales

TRILLANES CONTACT IS CHINESE INTEL OFFICER — ENRILE

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV appears to sink deeper into trouble the more he opens his mouth against his colleagues at the Senate, as Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said the former military mutineer may have committed espionage in carrying out his role as the government’s backdoor negotiator in resolving territorial disputes with China.

“From what I heard, he had managed to establish contacts courtesy of a military intelligence officer of China (assigned) in the Chinese embassy in the Philippines,” Enrile said to reporters.

The Chinese intelligence officer provided the channel to enable the senator to establish communication lines with some government officials in China, Enrile said.

Enrile issued the statement in the wake of Trillanes’ latest tirades that Enrile had erred in exposing the “notes” of Philippine Ambassador to China Sonia Brady.

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago pointed out that Trillanes can no longer be an effective backchannel negotiator with China over the disputed territories as his cover has already been blown.

“He may as well be a formal negotiator for the Philippine panel. His contacts or channels in China will no longer have the same effectiveness as this was reported out in the Philippine media because the Chinese Communist Party will know the moves of the Philippines in advance. This is a faux pas in diplomacy by the Philippine government. We don’t even know who tapped who because that seems to be a point of contention,” Santiago said.

“Now, that Trillanes’s cover has been blown. His effectiveness depended on great part on the secrecy of the negotiations. If that is the case, he is no longer as effective as before. He may as well be part of the panel the Philippine government sends to negotiations with the Chinese panel,” she added.

Santiago took note of criticisms on Trillanes on not being part, in the first place, of the negotiations since he is supposedly a legislator.

Trillanes was again firing away against Enrile yesterday in media despite Malacañang practically begging for him to shut up.

“First, JPE (Enrile) wrongly assumed that Ambassador Sonia Brady purportedly took those notes down while I was meeting with the Chinese officials. For the record, she was never present in any of the backchannel talks conducted,” according to Trillanes.

Earlier, Trillanes cast doubts that the Brady notes were authentic saying that the points raised by Enrile may have just written by the Senate President’s staff.

Trillanes said he had only one meeting with Brady in Beijing, which was held last Aug. 17 at the Philippine Embassy.

“I arranged for that meeting, specifically, to brief her about the background and status of the backchannel talks since she just reported at the embassy sometime in early August,” Trillanes said.

He added that during the private meeting, only Philippine Consul Evangeline Ong Jimenez-Ducrocq and a member of his staff were present with him and Brady. “But, definitely, there were no Chinese officials present,” he said.

“The media could easily ask Consul Jimenez-Ducrocq to confirm this. So, if those Brady Notes indeed exist, this is where she or Consul Jimenez-Ducrocq probably wrote it. Now, I absolutely don’t see anything wrong about conducting a briefing and coordinating with Ambassador  Brady,” Trillanes said.

Trillanes also accused Enrile of exposing state secrets “just to spite me”.

He claimed that the maneuver of Enrile blew up on his face as “he unwittingly pointed to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) as the only possible source of those classified documents,” Trillanes added.

The Brady notes were read by Enrile during his interpellation of Trillanes last Wednesday, after the latter, in a privilege speech, accused Enrile of railroading a bill seeking to divide Camarines Sur into two provinces to pave for the creation of Nueva Camarines.

Enrile, for his part, told reporters that Brady’s notes indicated it was prepared after Trillanes’ supposed 12th meeting with his Chinese counterparts.

The Senate chief pointed out that Brady was unaware of the first 12 meetings of Trillanes, who supposedly managed to establish contacts with former Chinese ambassador to the Philippines and present vice foreign minister of China, Fu Ying, in the first few meetings.

“He’s saying a mouthful, why doesn’t he tell us what had transpired in his first, second, third, 4th, 5th....12th, 14th, 15th (meetings)?

In disclosing the so-called Brady notes, Enrile maintained that the document cannot fall into the category of a state secret, a claim which was, however, contradicted by Santiago.

“I’m reporting to the nation about the conduct of a senator selling the country to a foreign government. That is my privilege to tell the people, every senator should do that including those that I think who os selling the country to another nation or who’s working for another country. That is the duty of a real senator, to protect the interest of this country,” Enrile said in defending his statement that the notes were not state secrets.

Enrile dismissed assertions of some sectors, in particular a complaint lodged by lawyer Oliver Lozano to the Senate, demanding an investigation on the alleged treasonable acts of Trillanes.

“There’s no treason here in this issue. There’s (no element of) war. The issue here is....Trillanes’ behavior and pronouncements and action involve the highest interest of this country and the Filipino people. It involves the safety of this country,” he said.

“There was no treason but we have an espionage law. We have a law on treason but we also have a law on espionage and that law on espionage is the one that sent Rufus Romero, a West Pointer who was a member of the staff of Col. Dwight Eisenhower at that time before the war,  (to jail) because it was found out that he was also passing information inimical to the interest of this country to the Japanese before the invasion,” he explained.

When asked if Trillanes could be held liable for such, Enrile merely laughed saying that they will have to study the matter since there is a law on espionage.

Santiago said, however, that proving Trillanes may have committed irregularity in his back channeling job may be hard to prove.

“If he was authorized by the President, more so if he was requested to assume this role, then there is nothing wrong because we cannot compartmentalize a public official. He can be elected to the legislative branch, but he can be of service to the country in another branch as long as he has full authority,” she said.

“But, in any event, apparently, he first went to China and there he made his first contacts. He then came back to the Philippines and thereafter served out his role as a back channel negotiator. If there was any question at all, it will be ‘What was he doing in China the very first time that he made contacts,” Santiago said.

“Normally, if you are a senator, you form part of a delegation extended to the legislature in general. You will not have time to develop channels especially since the topic is super secret,” she added.

Santiago appeared to have taken the side of Enrile on the issue of Trillanes’ need to coordinate with the DFA of negotiations with China whether it’s being carried out via a backdoor channel.

“In the first place, the secretary of foreign affairs must know what’s going on, whether it is explicit or implicit, meaning to say whether it is publicized or kept under wraps. In any event, it is not relevant to the leadership of the secretary of foreign affairs. It is important that everything should be known by the secretary so that he will have complete input to help him in the decision-making process. It appears that Del Rosario was caught off-guard, so I can understand fully well why he is miffed about the whole secret that was kept from him. Now we have a case where nobody knows who initiated this backchannel procedure. According to Senator Trillanes, it was Secretary (Paquito). Ochoa who asked him, but Malacañang claims it was Senator Trillanes who volunteered to do so,” she said.

“But apparently there were parameters to his authority. He was limited only to Panatag Shoal. He had no authority to speak on other subjects. As to whether he was successful as a backchannel operator remains to be seen because even that is a subject for debate. We don’t even know, if, for example, he was responsible or partly responsible for the back out of about thirty ships there, leaving only two or three. I just feel that this is a calamity in the order of a disaster for Philippine diplomacy,” she added.

It was understandable, Santiago said for both Del Rosario and Brady to be shocked to learn of such backdoor negotations operations and have been deliberately excluded from the process.

The issue on Brady preparing those “notes” which are obviously meant to be reported to Del Rosario is a standard procedure for all diplomats when they meet someone from the home country, most especially in their assigned country.

“They will always put down in writing their notes on their conversation because they have to report to the secretary of foreign affairs.

Santiago, nevertheless, said the notes of Brady should have been held confidential by Enrile.

“They are always confidential. They are only written for the eyes of the secretary of foreign affairs through his discretion, can report them to the president or not. But in any event, the public is not supposed to know about these notes, because diplomacy has always been conducted sub rosa. There’s a difference between the relationship that it ought to be and the relationship as it actually is,” she said.

“So it’s a function of an ambassador—like ambassador Brady, one of the most competent, brilliant diplomats ever seen—it was her function to take notes of every major conversation with every major public official of the Philippines or of China and report them to the secretary of foreign affairs,” Santiago added.

Asked how the issue can be resolved, Santiago said “the best procedure when there is a case of extreme urgency or confusion is everybody should zip their mouths. Nobody should talk.”