Enrile says Aquino made ‘costly blunders’ over Scarborough loss

Who’s to blame for the country’s loss of the Panatag Shoal to China?

Former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile pinned the blame on former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, saying he allegedly committed “fatal faux pas” and “costly blunders” that led to the lost territory.

Enrile wrote two Facebook posts commenting on the alleged errors committed by President Duterte’s predecessor when the country was locked in a standoff with China at the Panatag Shoal in 2012.

“Noynoy Aquino made a fatal blunder that led to the loss of Scarborough. He and his officialdom were so careless. They acted without verifying the facts,” Enrile said.

He said Aquino ordered the navy to withdraw from the shoal based on a “wrong belief” there was a supposed simultaneous ship pullout pact brokered by the United States. The past officials supposedly failed to realize there was no evidence of such agreement.

“All of them simply swallowed the word of an American official ‘hook, line, and sinker’ that the Philippines had such an agreement with China,” he said.

Enrile said even then Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, Aquino’s negotiator with China, could not confirm such deal on the pullout of PH and Chinese ships from the contested shoal. “Oh what a stupid and fatal faux pas for the Filipino people to suffer!” he asid.

In another post, Enrile elaborated on the alleged “costly blunders” of Aquino that caused the loss of shoal, which he said was a “very valuable marine asset” of the country.

Based on records he obtained, he said Aquino “recklessly handled the ten-week confrontation between the Philippines and China in Scarborough.”

He said Aquino made a mistake when he picked Trillanes as negotiator, who allegedly “bypassed everybody.” He said the former senator reported only Aquino, showing no record of his meeting with the Chinese side.

“Trillanes boasted that he achieved success in his mission to Beijing. He pointed to the supposed withdrawal of forty-one Chinese vessels from Scarborough as proof of his success. According to him, the pull out of those forty-one Chinese vessels was the result of his efforts alone. If his claim was true, how come we lost control over Scarborough?” Enrile asked.

He accused anew Aquino for alleged committing a blunder when he pulled out local ships from the shoal without verifying the facts. “The fatal error of Noynoy Aquino arose from plain carelessness,” he said.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)