No more comments on WikiLeaks files, says Palace exec

MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang is now zipping its lip when it comes to documents being released by antisecrecy website WikiLeaks.

A day after President Benigno Aquino criticized former US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney for her remarks against his late mother in purported confidential US embassy cables, Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said Tuesday that the Palace will not say anything more about WikiLeaks documents.

“First of all, the United States government has neither confirmed nor denied the cables and so it will be difficult to make any extensive comments on what we are seeing coming out of WikiLeaks, so I think there have been certain comments that have been made by certain officials regarding some of the news reports that have come out and I think we should leave it at that for now,” Carandang told reporters.

He said that it has been the Palace policy from the very start “not to comment on purportedly leaked internal communications of foreign governments.”

Reminded by reporters that President Aquino just last Monday dissed Kenney for her cables to Washington, Carandang said that the Chief Executive may have commented because it had to do with his late mother, former President Corazon Aquino.

“I think in that particular case, there was something said about his mother and I think it was important for him, for (Foreign) Secretary (Albert) del Rosario and for others who have commented to set the record straight since the comments were already out in the media,” Carandang said.

“But in general, we will refrain from commenting on those WikiLeaks reports,” he said.

Still, he said that if the Aquino family would want to make comments on WikiLeaks that had to do with Ms Aquino, “they are free to do so.”

Last Monday, The President said that if the US embassy cables were true, US officials should “assess their capabilities to assess and gather the necessary information so that they will have a right basis for their decisions.”

Aquino was asked to comment on a cable supposedly sent by Kenney after she met him for an hour-long coffee meeting at his residence in January 2010 when he was a senator then running for president.

At that time, Kenney, now the ambassador to Thailand, said Aquino was “clearly more relaxed and self-possessed than in previous encounters” when she said he appeared as a “diffident and unassertive man continuing a political tradition handed on by his parents but not carving his own legacy.”

The President also denounced as “far from the truth” Kenney’s supposed assessment on his mother whom, she said, was being revered as a hero but added her moral leadership “never fully compensated for her weak leadership style.”