No state secrets divulged

By Ninez Cacho-Oliavares

Just what state secrets did Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile divulge when he read the notes of then Ambassador to China Sonia Brady, as claimed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV?

Truth is, Trillanes does not know what he is talking about, especially the part where he claims that Enrile “brazenly exposed state secrets just to spite me and it eventually blew up on his face.”

As far as public opinion goes, the Brady report blew up on Trillanes’ face, so much so that he may just be politically dead.

But what state secrets were divulged? Enrile said nothing nor read anything that could be categorized as state secrets, since what he had disclosed, via the Brady notes, was precisely how Trillanes was working against the interest of the country — such as his telling Brady that no one in the country cares about Scarborough Shoal, and that he hewed to the bilateral line of the Chinese, apart from bad mouthing the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Albert del Rosario. These are state secrets?

The Brady notes contained the undesirable conduct of Trillanes as a back channel negotiator, which has nothing to do with the so-called state secrets.

In fact, it was Trillanes himself who had divulged a state secret, i.e., that he was Noynoy’s back channel in China. As this pseudo-diplomat who is moreover throughy wet behind the ears, should have realized, a back channel is a secret move by a government for whatever reasons that government believes a back channel is needed. He first spilled the beans of his being the back channel in China talks in a major daily where he also called the DFA chief a “traitor.”

What particular state secrets then were divulged by Enrile through the Brady notes as being claimed by Trillanes?

It was also Noynoy who had divulged the lies of Trillanes, in that Trillanes had claimed that he had been asked by Executive Secretary to be the Palace’s backdoor negotiator when it was the other way around. Noynoy himself who is just as inept in such matters, bared that Trillanes had volunteered for the back channeling job, claiming that it was the Chinese who wanted him as the Philippine negotiator, which also made Noynoy himself look stupid, as he agreed to what the Chinese officials purportedly wanted as negotiator, which would make Trillanes an agent for the Chinese.

Enrile was quoted as saying in a radio interview conducted by former Ambassador to the US Ernesto Maceda that intelligence officers of the People’s Republic of China’s Liberation Army helped Trillanes in establishing contacts in Beijing while he was reportedly doing backdoor negotiations with China.

The newspaper report said Enrile had stated that Trillanes’ closeness with top members of the Chinese military bolsters his theory that the senator could be walking a treasonous line during his backdoor talks with China on the South China Sea dispute.

“If he is indeed, close to the intel service of China, you can go in and out of China, that gives you the reason to understand why he was saying that the Filipinos are not interested in Scarborough Shoal,” he added.

“I understand that his channel he developed is the intel service of the Chinese embassy, which is actually the representative of the Chinese military. The PRoC Armed Forces, the Liberation Army of China, as you know, that is an institution that actually governs China,” said Enrile.

Enrile has pointed out that Trillanes had meetings with Chinese officials 16 times in Beijing, which trips Trillanes claimed were funded by the Palace, but which the Palace refuses to confirm or deny.

What is strange, however, is why some sectors who are pro-Noynoy and pro-Trillanes (and they are few) insist on keeping such Brady notes secret, as though it is better to keep the nation in the dark as to what treasonous acts Philippine officials have been and are being committed against the country and the nation--and all done in secret.

Trillanes did the country and the nation a great disservice as Noynoy has done.

Filipinos have a right to know when they are being screwed by their officials.