Former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has contradicted his own position on maritime standoff with China over the West Philippine Sea, a veteran journalist who wrote a book about the events that led to the 2016 United Nations arbitral ruling.
“He softened his position. He contradicted his previous position,” journalist Marites Vitug told Manila Standard in an interview.
Vitug recalled that when she interviewed Enrile for the book “Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case against China,” he recalled advising then President Benigno Aquino III to ‘assert our rights’ while pursuing bilateral talks with Beijing.
Enrile, for his part, said he could not recall having been interviewed by Vitug.
“I don’t recall I was interviewed by Ms. Vitug about the West Philippine Sea. Maybe my memory is failing, but pardon me, I cannot remember,” said the 97-year old Enrile.
Vitug said the conversation between Enrile and Aquino took place in July 2012 during a Cabinet meeting after the Philippines withdrew its two vessels – a Coast Guard patrol vessel and a Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources survey ship – to end the nine-week standoff with China in the Scarborough Shoal.
Vitug said Enrile’s advice to President Rodrigo Duterte to be friendly to China was in contrast to his previous stance.
Asked if she was able to ask any official of the Aquino administration as to why the Philippine vessels were not ordered to return to Scarborough after China reneged on its commitment to withdraw its ships, Vitug said it was not brought up during her interviews for the book.
“I think it’s because China was already in Scarborough Shoal then. Our vessels left. China’s fishing vessels also left but its militia vessels remained,” she said.
“There was a breach in the agreement brokered by the United States – that much is clear,” Vitug said.
She said then US assistant secretary Kurt Campbell brokered the talks with China – something that then Chinese ambassador to the Philippines Fu Ying denied.
Vitug said in her interviews, the issue of whether the order to pull out the two Philippine vessels from Scarborough was raised to the level of President Aquino.
“I am not sure if they brought it up to the President if it reached his level. The Coast Guard commandant then said they were told to pull out because of the typhoon,” she said.
Duterte earlier claimed it was only then Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert Del Rosario who made the call to withdraw the Philippine ships, a move which he said led to the country losing Scarborough Shoal to China.