The late Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile will not back down from a fight in which he knows his and the country’s reputations are compromised, no matter how bruising the confrontation.

He displayed this character during the EDSA revolt, which was initiated through his decision to break away from the more than 30 years of the regime of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

The courage against difficult odds radiated in his unforgettable 2012 clash with Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, the putschist, on the Senate floor over the country’s approach to Chinese aggression in the West Philippine Sea (WPS).

Trillanes was revealed as the backchannel agent of the late President Noynoy Aquino, whom Enrile believed worsened the country’s position in the territorial conflict.

Huddled with journalists, the veteran public servant reminisced about Trillanes’s actions, which led Enrile to call him a fifth columnist.

The narrative, in reflection, was crucial to the current situation where China has been harassing Philippine vessels everywhere in the vast expanse of water to which it has a historical claim.

In 2016, the United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) invalidated the Chinese nine-dash-line claim to the disputed WPS.

Enrile recalled that he attended a Cabinet meeting with President Aquino in July 2012 when he was a senator.

Aquino invited him to Malacañang, and at the gathering, he was surprised to see Trillanes.

The discussions were about Scarborough Shoal, where a standoff was ongoing between a Philippine fleet and Chinese ships.

Then Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario gave a briefing, and when it was over, Trillanes spoke, saying that he was negotiating with Chinese officials.

It was delivered, according to Enrile, in a way that vilified the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Enrile interjected to ask Trillanes where he got the authority to act as the country’s agent to China.

He learned from Aquino that the habitual destabilizer volunteered to intervene with China, claiming he had a channel.

On that claim, Enrile said Trillanes should be asked how he established that connection with China.

A question that went unanswered until Enrile breathed his last was why Trillanes acted like a spokesman of China during that security meeting with Aquino.

“He talked to China 15 times. We do not know who established that channel for him. However, I have a suspicion because I heard that he has a group that wanted to get $20 billion from the $70 billion promised by China to President Aquino when he went to China. That was the channel he used,” according to Enrile.

Enrile said he has been in the government longer than Trillanes, but he “cannot go to China and knock on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and expect to be let in.”

With Trillanes active again in the political field, trying to whip up intrigue, the questions raised by Enrile gained new relevance.

A Manchurian sleeper has long been suspected of working to promote the interests of a territorial rival.

Trillanes must reveal who the real masters he serves are, since they are undoubtedly not the Filipino people.