Enrile: I did not jeopardize national security

 From: People’s Journal

journal.com.ph

SENATE President Juan Ponce Enrile yesterday stressed that he did not jeopardize national security when he read some documents of Ambassador to China Sonia Brady concerning the “backroom” negotiations conducted by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV with Chinese officials.

Trillanes had questioned the “authenticity” of the supposed Brady notes which Enrile read Wednesday at the Senate session hall. The young senator vehemently objected, saying it would reveal sensitive security information.

In a television interview, Enrile showed a brown envelop with the words: “To be opened by the addressee only” meaning him.

”The documents, the notes of Brady, were reporting about a conversation she had with Senator Trillanes and it all involves (a) Philippine internal problem. It has nothing to do directly with the Scarborough Shoal, with China. And he was talking about, in effect, the inutility of the DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) which is uncalled for,” Enrile said.

Asked whether the notes were indeed prepared by Brady, Enrile said: “I can swear on it. Not only the Brady report. There’s another document. This is in Tagalog and this contains damaging statements not about the Scarborough issue. The issue is about the people of the government handling it.”

“I know what a state secret is. It’s something you cannot release. I’ve been handling the security of this country for 17 years. I know documents that must be classified. That’s the training that I’ve got,” he added.

Enrile said that during the Cabinet meeting last July 4 called by President Benigno Aquino to address the impasse in the Spratlys, he was “surprised” to see Trillanes there.

“He (Trillanes) was telling me there are traitors in this incident. Then, he said someone committed treason. I said how can there be treason, there’s no war?” Enrile recalled.###