Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda and his twin, Presidential Communications and Strategic Development (?!whew!) Chief Ricky Carandang, can deny to their hearts content but that will not change the fact that they together with Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario fouled up with that premature bulletin stating that Singapore is supporting the Philippine position in the ongoing dispute with China over certain islets in the South China (West Philippine) Sea. It turns out their pronouncement from Vladivostok during the Apec conference was not only premature, it was completely false. No less than the Singapore Foreign Ministry flatly denied the story and, worse, took a dig not only at our officials but the Philippine media as well.
Said the ministry: “You all know how free the Filipino media is; they can even be very free with the facts. There has been no change to Singapore’s position. When PM Lee met President Aquino at the Apec Summit in Vladivostok, he reiterated Singapore’s consistent position, namely, that we do not take sides on the merits or demerits of the various specific disputes in the South China Sea. PM Lee called on all claimants to exercise restraint and for disputes to be resolved peacefully and in accordance with international law. Unlike the Philippine media reports you refer to, we deal with facts not fiction.”      
So there. This statement is as clear as clear can be. No ifs and buts about it. No spin. Just a plain and simple statement of the nation-state’s position on a territorial dispute involving a fellow member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the “Big Neighbor.” From the very beginning, Singapore like all Asean members and even the other claimant countries in the area China included have always called for a “peaceful resolution” of the disputes and, like the US and other non-claimant countries, also advised it is not taking sides on the territorial disputes preferring that these be resolved in accordance with international laws.
I am sure Secretaries Del Rosario, Lacierda and Carandang knew Singapore’s positioning even before they went out of their way to put a spin on it making it appear that it is siding with us versus China.       
We can only guess why these gentlemen did what can only be described as a “too clever for comfort” attempt to trump China using Singapore. Probably, they got a mouthful from P-Noy himself for failing to arrange that one-on-one meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao which they had heralded almost as a given even before they left for Vladivostok so they had to scramble using “other” pegs to cover up for their failure. So they came out with that inane excuse that the meeting did not push through due to “scheduling” problems. “Scheduling problems?” My foot. That excuse did not fly at all, of course. In other times and climes, not even the most sympathetic reporter or media owner will dare highlight such a decidedly non-starting statement. But just the same probably to please Malacañang media outlets dutifully reported the same to the chagrin of those who truly understand the ways and practices of real diplomacy. Not content with that inanity these officials again went out of their way to use that meeting with Singapore Prime Minister Lee as a handle only to turn it into another faux pas. It came in very handy alright but since it was mishandled it brought us even deeper into the pits. They overstepped the bounds by spinning and misrepresenting Singapore’s position.
So we got a double whammy of sorts. The Chinese snubbed us then we displeased the Singaporeans just so these Cabinet members can justify their boo-boo. Now, these guys cannot even begin to think how to repair the damage which they have caused the country.
Of course, I am not suggesting that they should now resign to save P-Noy and the country from further embarrassment. But in more mature democracies and among responsible public servants that is usually taken as a matter of course. All that I can say now is they should at least take steps to make amends with Singapore probably by issuing a statement reflecting what really happened during that one-on-one meeting with PM Lee. No more spin and inchoate advisories which can be subject to misrepresentation.
In the case of the Chinese, perhaps the best thing that can happen now is to take pause and stop coming out with any issuances which can only inflame the situation further. That statement about us adopting the line “West Philippine Sea” in referring to the internationally known South China Sea will probably not bring us any closer to some kind of a detente for now.
But if we just keep things at that, refrain from coming out with any more moves which maybe misconstrued as provocative and accelerate our back door contacts to keep the lines burning then we may yet have a fighting chance to get our relations on track all over again.
Till then Secretaries Del Rosario, Lacierda and Carandang will serve best if they keep their biases and prejudices to themselves. They should know better than let Singapore ridicule us again with that line about “dealing with facts not fiction.”