Opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said Sunday the filing of a new libel case against him by resigned Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte over the smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of shabu last year would be his “opportunity” to subpoena the bank accounts of the President’s son.
“I welcome the filing of the libel case because it will be an opportunity to call Polong as a hostile witness,” said Trillanes, a staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte and his family.
Trillanes, who remains holed up in the Senate after the President revoked the amnesty granted him, said this would also be an opportunity to compel the former vice mayor with a tattoo on his back to prove that he is not a member of a Chinese triad drug syndicate.
The young Duterte has repeatedly declined the challenge of Trillanes to prove that he does not have a tattoo on his body.
He had earlier attended the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing on the multi-billion-peso drug smuggling case to deny the accusations of Trillanes about his alleged involvement in smuggling shabu.
Last week, the young Duterte filed the libel case against Trillanes before the Davao City Prosecutor’s Office.
In his complaint-affidavit, the former vice mayor said his brother-in-law, lawyer Manases Carpio, said sometime in September last year about a teleradio video clip phone patch interview of Trillanes with Leo Lastimosa of DYAB Cebu.
“Watching it, I was aghast to hear the respondent maliciously accused me and my brother-in-law, Attorney Manases Carpio, of supposed rampant and widespread corruption and extortion. Admittedly, this was based on sheer information fed to him, the identity of whom he did not identify nor disclose,” said the former vice mayor.
The presidential son said Trillanes accused him and Carpio of extortion against Uber over its franchise and against similar companies purportedly in conspiracy with LTRFB RD 7 Director Ahmed Cuison.
According to Duterte, the senator’s “tagging and wild accusations against him and his brother-in-law of widespread shakedown and rampant corruption and extortion on radio, based on double, if not multiple, hearsay information he claimed to have received, was downright libelous, defamatory and pure black propaganda.”
Trillanes’ lawyer Rey Robles said they will seek the dismissal of the libel complaints filed by Duterte and Carpio.