FORMER Negros Oriental representative Jacinto Paras, along with three of his other fellow lawyers, on Thursday accused Senator Antonio Trillanes IV of inciting sedition and rebellion for encouraging the military to kill President Rodrigo Duterte.
Manuel Luna, Eligio Mallari and Nasser Marohomsalic joined Paras in a plan to file criminal charges against Trillanes because of his pronouncement.
Paras claimed the senator was accusing the President of amassing ill-gotten wealth worth P2 billion.
In a privilege speech on Oct. 3, Trillanes said the soldiers might use all of their bullets of an M-60 machine gun on Duterte.
Paras said they will discuss where to file the case.
“Definitely, we will file in two to three days [from now],” he added.
On the other hand, Mallari said Trillanes’ statement was not a “mere symbolism.”
“It is not symbolism. If you do such thing, it is inciting to sedition and you’re calling on the people to act against the President,” he said.
Trillanes, however, said Paras and his co-lawyers’ plan to file sedition raps against him are “absurd” but still “welcome.”
“No matter how absurd these cases may seem, I actually welcome them because, as part of my legal defense, I would be able to prove my claim on Duterte’s ill-gotten wealth,” Trillanes said in a statement.
“Specifically, I would be able to ask the court to subpoena his bank documents as an exemption to the Bank Secrecy Law,” the senator said.
Trillanes claimed that he made no direct appeal for the military to kill Duterte, but merely said troops would probably have to use their M-60 machine guns against the President because of the volume of evidence proving the latter’s ill-gotten wealth.
“Kung makikita ito ng mga sundalo, M-60 ang gagamitin sa’yo kasi marami-rami ito. Mauubos yung magasin, kung P40 million yung hinahanap mo,” Trillanes had said.
Trillanes made the statement in response to a speech made by Duterte in which he said anybody can shoot him if it is proven that his lifetime savings exceeded P40 million.
Trillanes had repeatedly accused Duterte of having bank transactions amounting to P2.2 billion from September 2006 to December 2015.