TRANSPORTATION Secretary Arturo Tugade scored the failure of Washington’s intelligence after he dismissed as “gossip” claims by outgoing US Ambassador Philip Goldberg that he went with Senator Alan Peter Cayetano on an “unpublicized” visit to China in June.
“If it is true that Ambassador Goldberg said that, then the fabled American ‘intelligence network’ has miserably failed again. Tsismis yan [That’s gossip]! Was never in Beijing in June! You can always examine my passport anytime,” Tugade claimed.
The President, however, last June, claimed he asked Tugade to go to China to discuss agreements on the railway project that has been promised by China .
“Art Tugade has to go to China, not to talk about war, not to talk about irritations there, but to talk about peace,” Duterte said in his speech at the Sulong Pilipinas business forum at SMX Davao.
But Cayetano confirmed he went to China in June.
When asked if Duterte instructed him to do this, Cayetano told online news site Rappler: “I cannot say.”
Discussing the $24 billion in investment and loan pledges Duterte secured during his recent state visit to China, Goldberg said he was not surprised that the Philippines secured an estimated $24 billion in investment and loan pledges after Duterte’s visit restored to normal level the relations between Manila and Beijing.
The deals include at least $5.5-billion for transportation and infrastructure, $1 billion for a hydroelectric power plant, $700 million for a steel plant, and $780 million for a port development project in Davao City – all expected to generate 2.6 million jobs.
“I also know, and I don’t think this has been revealed publicly, but I know, that Sen. Cayetano, President Duterte’s running mate, made an unpublicized trip to China in June along with Secretary Tugade,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg noted that before Duterte’s state visit, Chinese ambassador Zhao Jianhua and Chinese businessmen visited the president-elect in June. Cayetano and Tugade also made a trip to China last June, he said.
“I actually wasn’t all that surprised. I do know that the Chinese Ambassador and others in the Chinese business community were visiting [then] President-elect Duterte quite often in the month of June,” Goldberg said.
