IT all started with a tweet.
Lawyer Harry Roque questioned the Philippine government’s decision to send a 35-member delegation to The Hague, Netherlands where the United Nations arbitral tribunal is hearing the country’s petition against China.
READ: PH makes ‘impassioned plea’ vs China before UN tribunal
“With only 2 oralists at The Hague, why do we have a delegation of 35? We should have spent the money assisting displaced fisherfolk,” Roque tweeted on Tuesday, referring to fishermen displaced from Panatag Shoal (Scarborough Shoal) by Chinese vessels.
Asked for his comment, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda referred to Roque as “KSP!” in a text to Malacañang reporters.
KSP is the abbreviation of the Filipino colloquial phrase “Kulang sa pansin” or attention-seeking.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte, who is a member of the delegation in The Hague, said people should not “compute the support of a government united to fight for the country.”
But that didn’t stop Roque, who may run for senator under the opposition party United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), from posting criticisms against the Malacañang officials.
READ: Harry Roque ‘seriously considering’ Senate run under Binay’s UNA
On Wednesday, he said “KSP” could also mean that Malacañang was “Kabado sa paliwang (nervous in explaining)” on “The Hague junket.”
Roque also singled out Lacierda in his tweets.
“The Philippine legal profession, maybe except Lacierda, has the capacity to advance the Philippine interest in international tribunals,” he said.
Lacierda, on the other hand, said anything that Roque states “should (now) be deemed with political undertones” since he is running for senator under UNA.
“I think Mr. Roque is trying to be specious in his statements,” he said, adding that Valte’s response was an adequate response. “I’m a lawyer. I can answer him (Roque) straight why we need international counsel, and he knows the answer to that also. So stop asking questions that you know the answer to.”
READ: PH power team to The Hague; UN tribunal to rule first on jurisdiction
In addition to Valte, Secretary General Florin Hilbay, who opened the Philippine presentation, and Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, who argued why the government filed the case before the tribunal, other officials present for the ongoing hearings in The Hague are:
-Speaker Feliciano Belmonte,
-Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa, Jr.,
-Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio
– Supreme Court Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza,
-Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin,
-Justice Secretary Leila de Lima,
-Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Benjamin Caguioa,
-Sandiganbayan Justice Sarah Fernandez,
-Undersecretary Emmanuel Bautista and
-Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevara