Less talk, less mistake; no talk, no mistake. That seems to be the order of the day at Malacañang Palace when it comes to the issues involving the West Philippine Sea territorial dispute with China. No less than President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III now makes careful statements that could otherwise be taken out of context, if not misinterpreted by the other side on these very sensitive matters.
Especially for a country like ours that has no credible defense capability, talking tough is all that the Philippines could afford to do at this time. But P-Noy obviously learned the hard way the finer points of diplomacy when it comes to handling the long-standing territorial disputes with China.
Hopefully, we have seen the last of the diplomatic faux pas that has dragged not only the President but our entire country in a tight fix. An overbearing senator opened his mouth to the press about his “backdoor” talks that had presidential imprimatur supposedly to help ease tension in our bilateral ties with China.
If one has to do an effective backdoor channel talks, it must be conducted quietly, if not secretly. As an informal avenue for discussing sensitive matters like those involving state matters, such backdoor channeling must be done with utmost care and trust to keep discussions below the radar.
From that experience, P-Noy now tactfully handles questions about the West Philippine Sea dispute in, shall I say, a more presidential manner. The fresh presidential tact was discernible during the question-and-answer forum at the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) press conference held at the Manila Hotel last Wednesday.
P-Noy noted his newly appointed Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas has made significant strides to bring back the warm and friendly atmosphere of relations with China. The President cited the meeting of Roxas with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping held in Nanning during the China-ASEAN Expo last month.
The Chinese Vice President is regarded as China’s likely incoming new leader to take over from President Hu Jintao.
“Well, we recognize the fact that they (China) are undergoing a transition which hopefully will happen by the end of November when there, hopefully, will be less nationalistic pressures on whoever the leadership will be. But the little warming up is that they have initiated dialogue with us,” President Aquino pointed out.
Initially, P-Noy recalled the Chinese side sounded out for a meeting with him and President Hu at the sidelines of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders’ summit held in Vladivostok last month. But that didn’t push through. In lieu of this meeting, an invitation was sent to Roxas to meet with Vice President Xi at the China-ASEAN Expo.
“That’s why I said that there seems to be a very gradual warming up. I want to be very precise. So we are hopeful that this gradual warming up will be really warmed up by the time of the transition. So we’re taking a wait-and-see attitude also,” President Aquino told his FOCAP audience who included several members of the diplomatic corps.
It was also in the FOCAP forum that President Aquino declared the backdoor talks of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV on China matters are over and done with. As explained earlier by the Palace, it was Trillanes who offered to do his own backdoor talks while the neophyte senator was in Beijing at the time he called up P-Noy. P-Noy later admitted he accepted the offer of Trillanes to exhaust all avenues to patch things up with China.
Up to now though, it is still unclear what made Trillanes brag about his holding backdoor talks on the Panatag Shoal case. Whatever goodwill he earned from his Chinese contacts, Trillanes burned himself into inutility.
It added strains instead of putting an end to the very deleterious exchange of harsh words at the height of the conflicting claims over Panatag Shoal earlier on. Personal politics entered into the picture and everything went haywire.
Reading from the notes of Philippine ambassador to China Sonia Brady who met with Trillanes in Beijing, Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile accused the self-appointed backdoor channel for badmouthing Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto del Rosario.
Despite his antics, P-Noy did not take this against Trillanes in adopting the senator on his re-election bid under the administration-backed ticket in the May 2013 elections.
Nonetheless, President Aquino made it clear Trillanes is now off-limits from self-appointed role as backdoor negotiator on the China issue.
“Currently, there are no (more) backchannel efforts,” P-Noy announced. Of course, it was announced with a public presidential “thank you for all efforts” of the senator. As publicly admitted later by Trillanes, he was in Beijing with some of his Filipino-Chinese friends (benefactors) when he was allegedly approached to conduct the backdoor channeling.
The request to Trillanes to do back-door channel talks came purportedly from Chinese Foreign Ministry Vice Minister Fu Ying who once served as ambassador of China to the Philippines during the term of former President Joseph Estrada.
The Vice Minister flew here last week for the 18th Foreign Ministry Consultations (FMC) between the Philippines and China with their counterparts from the DFA. Ironically, she conducted closed-door talks with Enrile last Thursday. That was without Trillanes in attendance, of course.
Accompanied by their incumbent ambassador Ma Keqing at the Palace, she had official talks the next day with no less than President Aquino himself with Del Rosario, Roxas and several other Aquino Cabinet members present.
Incidentally, the Vice Minister also paid a courtesy call on Estrada who hosted a reception for her at the Manila Polo Club before she flew back to Beijing last Saturday. She left without any official confirmation on the backchannel role of Trillanes.
Clearly arrived at after all these formal meetings was that both sides have agreed to bring Philippine-China relations back on track and moving forward. Keep all venues open but preferably no more backdoor antics, please.