DIE HARD III
Herman Tiu Laurel
9/24/2012
The original issue now buried under tons of media debris from the Trillanes-Enrile imbroglio was not the China back channeling, it was the Camarines Sur gerrymandering bill and the alleged Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lobbying with the Senate president to pass the bill. This issue was tabled in the Senate for Monday, Sept. 17 but Senator Trillanes was absent due to a leg injury. It was in that Senate session that Enrile, irked at the questions over his pet CamSur gerrymandering bill that the Senate president lambasted Trillanes for being a "coward" in failing to appear in the Senate debate on the issue. Trillanes could only attend on Wednesday, declaring his loss of confidence in Enrile's leadership and to bolt the Senate majority coalition.
Solita Collas-Monsod wrongly asserts in her Sept. 22 Inquirer column that, "It is very clear that the fight between Senators J.P. Enrile and A. Trillanes was started by the latter when he named Enrile as the reason he was quitting the majority bloc… complete with attacks on the quality of Enrile's leadership (supposedly dictatorial at the very least) and motives (alleged lackey of Gloria Arroyo)." Monsod attenuated the timeline and arrived at the wrong conclusion. Enrile cast the first stone on Monday, Sept. 17 calling Trillanes a coward. On Tuesday, some newspapers were already bannering Trillanes' back channeling vis-à-vis China on the Scarborough Shoals question. But the back channeling was a confidential State mission, confirmed by Malacañang lately by BS Aquino III himself. Who leaked the Trillanes back channeling to the press?
It doesn't appear to be an accident that on Wednesday Enrile responded to Trillanes' privileged speech not by answering the issues squarely but with a grand diversionary move. Enrile diverted the proceedings from CamSur to China-Philippine relations, lambasting the Trillanes back channeling with highly charged, emotional ad hominem such as "traitor." Enrile conveniently had in hand former RP ambassador to China, Sonia Brady's notes which he read and annotated with derogatory and bombastic bias against Trillanes. Subsequently, revelations involving DFA Secretary Albert Del Rosario and Manny V. Pangilinan surfaced revolving around MVP and the US interests. Recognizable radio hacks immediately went to work on morning radio, many former appointees of Gloria Arroyo (whose hatred of Trillanes is well known) to government sinecures.
Enrile's use of Brady's notes dragged other issues in, such as the links of Del Rosario's antagonistic bellicosity against China, relations to Manny Pangilinan and the latter's Recto Bank interests, the US "pivot" and "refocus" on Asia, and the unfortunate mismanagement of Malacañang of a "good cop, bad cop" strategy with China that otherwise would be a valid strategy in dealing with the Scarborough Shoal issue. People should pause to ponder: Was it kosher or proper that Enrile read confidential government diplomatic records and exchanges without following protocol? This is prima facie treason. That's why Trillanes had to walk out a while, as discussing the Brady notes in the open jeopardizes national security. As it turns out now, Enrile's impropriety really embarrasses the country.
Enrile cast a lot of aspersions. But while engaging in trapo gerrymandering and avoiding to face the issue, does he have the right to call anybody else a "coward?" Enrile called Trillanes a "fraud."
Let's consider Enrile's admitted lie in staging his own fake assassination in 1971, his 1995 dagdag-bawas proven by Nene Pimentel, his betrayal of the anti-PPA cause we started in 2001, ad nausea. Who's the fraud? I have known Trillanes and the Magdalo soldiers since Oakwood 2003. These young men stayed together through the hardest of times, with many among their families literally on the verge of starvation during their incarceration; only their word of honor kept them together and through thick and thin. Enrile should not think his billions can besmirch the Magdalo members or "sno-pake" his own vacuity.
DFA career officers say Del Rosario is a green card holder. Graduated from Xavier High School in New York and New York University, a member of the Asia Society (a John Rockefeller organization) and its International Council, Del Rosario is very qualified for a green card. Del Rosario sat in MVP companies: the Philippine Telecommunications Investment, Philex Mining, PT Indofood Sukses Makbur Tbk (Indonesia), Metro Pacific Investments, Metro Pacific Tollways Development, Manila North Tollways and more; headed Pacific Plaza Towers' development, Metro Pacific Corp.'s signature project at the Fort. Del Rosario's SALn has P 650 million. MVP called Trillanes a "liar," asking why he would conspire with Del Rosario if he (MVP) is negotiating with China. It's not only in diplomacy that "good cop, bad cop" is useful.
Gloria Arroyo awarded Del Rosario the Edsa II Heroes Award in recognition of efforts in promoting Philippine democracy, the one described by former Supreme Court Justice and ConCom chairman Cecilia Muñoz Palma described as a "Rule of Force." With the most critical foreign relations issues in his hands, shouldn't these questions about Del Rosario be clarified first?
(Watch Destiny Cable GNN's HTL edition of Talk News TV, Saturdays, 8:15 to 9 p.m., with replay at 11:15 p.m. and Sunday, and on www.gnntv-asia.com: this week "Dollars, Pesos and Gold" with FDC's Sonny Africa and KME's Hiro Vaswani; tune to 1098AM radio every Thursday 3p.m.; visit http://newkatipunan.blogspot.com)
