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Friday, March 29, 2024

Trillanes vows to go to jail if Duterte has proof vs parents

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Opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Tuesday vowed to voluntarily go to any jail even in Davao City, President Rodrigo Duterte’s hometown if it can be proven that his late father, and his mother, who is afflicted with Parkinson’s disease, had been involved in any anomaly.

“If he [Duterte] finds anything anomalous, again, I would voluntarily walk into any detention facility even in Davao,” Trillanes said.

At the same time, Trillanes dare Duterte to ‘pretend’ that he’s mad and order the arrest of the drug lord involved in the P6.4 billion and the P11-billion shipment that were smuggled into the country.

Trillanes was referring to the drug shipment of alleged 604 kilos of shabu, which slipped past the Bureau of Customs’ express lane and the ones seized from two warehouses in Valenzuela City last year.

He also cited the P11 billion worth of shabu that were discovered inside four empty magnetic lifters inside a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez town last August.

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“It would really appear that he was behind these shabu shipments,” Trillanes said.

The senator said he welcomes Duterte’s statement that he would probe the transactions allegedly entered by his late father, a member of PMA Class ’59 who retired from the service in 1988 (and died 10 years later in 1998) and her aging mother.

“In fact, I’ll raise the ante,” said the opposition senator who has engaged the President in a “word war” over various issues.

After the government failed to send Trillanes to jail, Duterte said on Monday, that he had ordered the investigation of the alleged Philippine Navy deals entered into by the senator’s parents.

“We are looking into the paper. We’re investigating quietly the deals during the time of his father and mother. You can be very sure that they will all come out,” the President said.

Earlier, the President accused Trillanes’ mother of acting as a supplier for the Philippine Navy, which the President claimed was a clear case of conflict of interest due to the senator’s status before as a Navy officer.

Trillanes, however, strongly denied the President’s allegations and insisted that the President only mentioned his parents since he “cannot throw anything else” against him.

He also slammed the President for dragging the name of his 84-year-old mother, who has been suffering from Parkinson’s disease, in their “war” over certain political issues.

Duterte said during a one-on-one interview with Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo that Trillanes’ parents had “transactions” with the Philippine Navy but did not expound on the said deals.

“You soldiers, you believe in Trillanes. His father was still then in the service. He was then in the service and most of the transactions, most of the supply in the Navy, her mother was involved,” Duterte had said.

The President earlier issued a proclamation voiding Trillanes’ amnesty void and ordered the senator’s arrest but Makati City Regional Trial Court Judge Andres Soriano of Branch 148 has sustained its decision not to issue an arrest warrant against the senator.

The government sought a motion for reconsideration, as it argued that the coup d’etat case should be revived and an arrest warrant issued against Trillanes, but this was also struck down by the court.

However, Malacañang remains confident that it can still win the case and have Trillanes jailed over his long-dismissed coup d’etat charges.

Panelo, who is also Duterte’s chief legal counsel, said the government will appeal  Soriano’s decision before the Court of Appeals (CA) with the Office of the Solicitor General in charge of the appeal.

“We’re very confident (that) we are going to win this case. Courts will always rule on the basis of evidence. We feel that our evidence is very strong,” Panelo said.

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