Opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV on Sunday called Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano a “political snake” for shedding his loyalty to the Aquino administration at the height of the South China Sea row in 2012 and 2013 and donning the Duterte administration’s jacket in appeasing China today. Cayetano, a former senator, blames the souring of relations between the Philippines and China on the Aquino administration’s handling of the territorial dispute between the two countries in the South China Sea. When he was in the Senate, however, he never questioned the Aquino administration’s decision to submit the dispute for international arbitration after China grabbed Panatag Shoal, a rich fishing ground 230 kilometers off the coast of Zambales province, from the Philippines after a two-month maritime standoff in 2012.

Yap, D., & Orellana, F. (2018, August 6). Sea row splits Trillanes, Cayetano. Philippine Daily Inquirer, pp. A1, A6.