PLDT Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. Chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan called Trillanes a “liar” for insinuating that he has instigated the anti-China tirade to protect his business interest.
“I can tell him this to his face ‘you’re a liar,’” Pangilinan said in a phone call from Tokyo late Wednesday night.
Pangilinan admitted that Trillanes came to see him asking him to ask Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario to tone down his rhetoric against China. “I told him I will tell him (Del Rosario) but he is only my friend and I cannot dictate on him what to do,” Pangilinan told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
He also denied as “rubbish” Trillanes’ claim that he funded a lobby group to prod the US into siding with the Philippines against China on the territorial dispute.
Pangilinan said he was one of only several prominent businessmen who formed the US-Philippine Society in order to enhance ties between the two countries with no “sinister plan.”
“I do not meddle with Del Rosario’s business or schedule nor does he meddle in mine,” said Pangilinan.
Pangilinan also dismissed as pure speculation Trillanes’ claim that he wanted to create a diversion to prevent China from releasing its findings that the Recto Bank find of Forum Energy was not as big as advertised. Trillanes had claimed that fueling the anti-China sentiment would allow Pangilinan the time to look for another buyer to sell the rights to Recto Bank.
Pangilinan said that Forum has only stated that the Recto Bank could possibly be the biggest gas find in the country based on initial studies but nowhere did the company claim that this was the “bible truth” as this was subject to further studies.