To see is to believe

Shortly after I sent to my Opinion Editor of The Freeman my article last Sunday entitled “OMG I See Modern Lim Ah Hongs!” the Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, declared that the very incident at the Ayungin Shoal which I wrote about was “not an armed attack, (but) may be a misunderstanding or an accident, a case of miscommunication.” In effect, what the elements of Chinese armada did was, in the view of the seat of Philippine government, as expressed by a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, not deliberate and therefore was not as piratical as Chinese dreaded pirate Lim Ah Hong did centuries ago.

The Malacanang statement was an official government position. It carried authority and necessarily weight. Obviously, it was issued to downplay the incident. The diplomatic language was intended not to exacerbate the situation. In fact, when the Executive Secretary was asked during a press briefing if the government was considering bringing the matter to a global body, he categorically said that “That’s not yet in consideration because, I think, this is a matter that can easily be resolved very soon by us. And if China wants to work with us, we can work with China.”

On the other hand, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., expressed an entirely different view of the June 17 Ayungin Shoal incident. He did not agree with the observation of the Executive Secretary, that it was a simple case of misunderstanding. Secretary Teodoro clearly departed from the remarks of Secretary Bersamin. In contradicting the Executive Secretary, Defense Secretary Teodoro said that “We see the latest incident in Ayungin not as a misunderstanding or an accident. It is a deliberate act of the Chinese officialdom xxx” (emphasis mine.)

On one hand, General Romeo Brawner Jr, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, scored China for its latest act of "reckless and aggressive" harassment that targeted a rotation and resupply mission for Filipino troops manning the BRP Sierra Madre, in Ayungin Shoal in the West Philippine Sea last June 17. In a statement, Brawner said the Chinese Coast Guard has "no right or legal authority to interfere with our legitimate operations or damage our assets within our Exclusive Economic Zone This reckless and aggressive behavior has caused bodily harm and constitutes a blatant violation of international maritime law, Philippine sovereignty and sovereign rights.” Somewhere in the meeting with media people, the general added that the Filipino soldiers fought back with “everything that they had.” He clarified that at least eight Navy personnel were hurt, with one losing a finger, when Chinese maritime forces boarded and punctured their rigid-hulled inflatable boats, damaging the craft, aside from confiscating several items onboard. Brawner concluded that “For me, this is piracy already.”

That having been expressed by Gen. Brawner, (this is piracy already) and which, I think is also the underlying thought of Secretary Teodoro, I will reproduce here what I said in my previous column about piracy. The accepted definition of piracy is that it is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods from other ships.

While the Executive Secretary is the alter ego of the president and therefore his pronouncements are deemed the pronouncements of the president unless reprobated by the latter, the defense secretary, in the same constitutional law principle, is also a qualified political agent of the chief executive and what he says also is considered as the president’s.

With these contrasting views, we resort to seeing and believing because to see is to believe. The video footage of the incident can tell us that the Executive Secretary was not as truthful as the Defense Secretary and General Brawner.