Palace: Gazmin continues to enjoy Noy’s trust

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang belied rumors that Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin was under fire for the report that China installed concrete blocks in Panatag Shoal, which caused tension between Manila and Beijing.

“Defense Secretary Gazmin continues to enjoy the President’s full trust and confidence,” Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma said yesterday in a text message to reporters.

VERA Files earlier reported that Philippine military investigators found that the concrete blocks attributed to China were used earlier by the US Navy as “sinkers” to preserve the wreckage of old ships they used for target practice.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has kept mum on the report.

DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said it would be better for the Department of National Defense (DND) to comment on it.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, for his part, said the DND is free to release photos of the concrete blocks in Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal in the wake of the opposing views of Philippines and China about these.

“The Philippines view is that there are concrete blocks there except that we don’t know how it got there, when it got there and who put it there. The Chinese view is that there are no concrete blocks. There are only rocks,” Del Rosario said.

The Philippine government did not protest the concrete blocks in the shoal as Manila and Beijing maintained opposing views.

President Aquino also said the concrete blocks did not pose any threat to navigation and there was no reason to remove them at this point. He noted the concrete blocks also looked old.

Palace mum on Lacierda’s supposed transfer to NEDA

The Palace, however, is mum about a report that presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte and Secretary Ricky Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office will be “kicked up” to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), following other reports that they will now play a supporting role to Coloma.

“I have no information on other possible Cabinet movements or appointments,” Coloma texted Palace reporters yesterday when asked about the Oct. 27 column of Ricardo “Dong” Puno in a business broadsheet.

Puno, a former press secretary himself during the time of deposed President Joseph Estrada and a veteran TV host and executive, wrote that Lacierda, Valte and Carandang have “apparently been kicked upstairs to NEDA.” – With Delon Porcalla