Malacañang on Thursday junked allegations that it was President Rodrigo Duterte himself who ordered the downgrading of charges against the 19 Leyte cops who were implicated in the brutal killing of Albuera town mayor Rolando Espinosa and another inmate in November 2016.
Following allegations made by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV that he could prove Duterte’s hand in the Department of Justices’s order to downgrade the charges to homicide, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella laughed off the solon’s latest bombshell by turning into Trillanes’ recent interview before UK state broadcaster BBC, wherein he appeared to have chickened out.
“Versus Leyte cops? All right, maybe it’s best to summarize this Senator Trillanes with the interview he did with BBC,” Abella said in a Palace news briefing Thursday.
“[What the] Senator [said] seemed to be out of tune and not reflective of the times,” he added.
Superintendent Marvin Marcos, former Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Region 8 (CIDG-8) director, and his men were originally slapped with murder charges for allegedly conspiring to eliminate Espinosa.
Last week however, they were able to walk out of detention on bail, following the DoJ’s order to downgrade the charges to homicide.
Malacañang likewise insinuated that Trillanes might have already “gone crazy” following his allegations that President Rodrigo Duterte gave the green-light to some members of the Philippine National Police Academy Class 1996 to handle the operation of death squads nationwide.
“Really, I think the interview with HARDtalk just summarized everything that he is. You know, he seems to be really given to his huge fantasies,” Abella said, again referring to the BBC interview.
In an interview with ‘Hard Talk’ host Stephen Sackur, Trillanes continued to rant about the President’s martial law declaration and his bloody drug war, which has killed thousands since Duterte took office.
At one point of the interview, Sackur asked Trillanes whether he is a Democrat, but the solon replied: “I’m from the Nacionalista Party.”
The television anchor then clarified that he was referring to an advocate or supporter of democracy.
In a press conference at the Senate, Trillanes said it was Duterte himself who gave the order to kill Espinosa inside his jail cell, citing his alleged discovery that Duterte himself was running a “death squad” in Malacañang through his most trusted police officer, Supt. Edilberto Leonardo, and Supt. Marvin Marcos, who led the team which killed Espinosa.
Trillanes also alleged that some members of the Philippine National Police Academy Class 1996 have handled the operation of death squads nationwide.
Trillanes likewise said he received information from several sources that a certain Supt. Leonardo, who belongs to PNPA Class 1996 and a “kumpare” of presidential son and Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, leads a group of policemen in executing plans to conduct extrajudicial killings (EJKs) of suspected drug dealers and drug users.