Trillanes questions validity of ‘Brady notes’

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Antonio Trillanes IV questioned on Monday the validity of the “Brady notes” read by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (JPE) during  last week’s session in the Senate.

“JPE (Enrile’s initials) wrongly assumed that Ambassador Sonia Brady purportedly took those notes down while I was meeting with the Chinese officials. For the record, she was never present in any of the backchannel talks conducted,” Trillanes said in a statement.

He said that he only met with Brady once in the Philippine embassy in Beijing on August 17, 2012. Also present in that meeting, he said, were a member of his staff and Philippine Consul Evangeline Ong Jimenez-Ducrocq.

“If those Brady Notes indeed exist, this is where she or Consul Jimenez-Ducrocq probably wrote it,” Trillanes said.

“I arranged for that meeting, specifically, to brief her about the background and status of the backchannel talks since she just reported at the embassy sometime in early August,” he said. “I absolutely don’t see anything wrong about conducting a briefing and coordinating with Amb. Brady.”

Trillanes said Enrile “brazenly exposed state secrets just to spite me” and even “unwittingly pointed to the Department of Foreign Affairs as the only possible source of those classified documents.”

A heated exchanged of words  ensued between the two senators after Trillanes accused Enrile in a privilege speech last week of railroading the passage of a bill, which seeks to divide the Camarines Sur province.

Enrile countered Trillanes’ accusation by exposing the “Brady notes,” which allegedly contained details about the latter’s backchannel talks with China over the  disputed West Philippine Sea.