MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives is keeping out of the conflict between Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV who was reported to have negotiated with China over the Scarbrouh Shoal dispute.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. told reporters on Thursday that the issue was “an internal affair and while we want to be informed, certainly we don’t want to inquire into the propriety or anything like that. Wala [None].”
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
“It’s not for me to say kung tama o hindi. Our government under these trying times will do as much as it can to deescalate this situation,” he assured when asked whether it was wrong for Enrile to make public the notes of Philippine Ambassador to China Sonia Brady on Trillanes’ negotiations with China.
Belmonte also allayed worries over a supposed coup plot on Enrile within the Liberal Party, saying that as far as he knew there were none.
Muntinlupa City Representative Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of the House committee on national defense and security urged President Benigno Aquino III to exercise care in handling the disagreement between Trillanes and Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario as the country’s national interest was being jeopardized by the clash.
He said that the Philippines’ position in its territorial dispute with China was weakened by the developments.