(Eagle News)–“A political snake.”
This was how Senator Antonio Trillanes IV described Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano following his word war with former President Benigno Aquino III over the West Philippine Sea issue.
In a statement, Trillanes noted how Cayetano was “still a loyal ally of the Aquino administration” when the Panatag stand-off took place in 2012.
“..So obviously, he never saw anything wrong with how PNoy (President Noynoy Aquino) resolved it then,” Trillanes said.
According to Trillanes, Cayetano also “never saw anything wrong” with him (Trillanes) being a backchannel negotiator, as appointed by Aquino.
“I clearly remember telling him, as well as the other senators then, of the gist of my mission as backchannel negotiator. For that matter, I had multiple media interviews about it…,” he said.
Trillanes said that as backchannel negotiator, he managed to reduce the 100 Chinese vessels in Panatag Shoal to three.
He said the “refusal of China to remove the remaining 3 ships forced the hand of PNoy to file the arbitration case, which we eventually won.”
“Why didn’t you follow through on our historic victory at the arbitration court?’ Or better yet: ‘Why aren’t you fighting for our sovereignty the way you promised during the campaign?’” Trillanes asked Cayetano and President Rodrigo Duterte.
