SENATOR Antonio Trillanes IV failed to substantiate his claim Thursday that Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte was a member of a drug triad after President Rodrigo Duterte’s oldest son refused to show the senators a tattoo on the back of his body.
While admitting having a tattoo, the vice mayor invoked his right to privacy when Trillanes asked him if he is willing to show his tattoo to validate an intelligence report given to him by a foreign source.
Trillanes had told the Senate hearing that the vice mayor was a member of a triad and that the proof of this was a color tattoo of a dragon on his back.
Appearing for the first time in the Senate hearing on the shipment of shabu worth P6.4 billion that slipped past Customs in May, Paolo was asked if he had a tattoo.
“Yes, sir,” Paolo answered, then invoked his right to privacy when asked to show his tattoo to the panel.
“I am very sorry, but I cannot answer allegations based on hearsay,” he also said.
Trillanes said the tattoo was physical evidence of membership in the triad which operates in China, Hong Kong, and Macau, and is engaged in various illegal activities, including the smuggling of illegal drugs.
Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the committee, spoke several times in aid of Paolo.
“The chair would like to counsel everyone here to be very careful because everybody has rights here and the chair intends to ensure that we respect those rights,” Gordon said.
Paolo’s lawyer Rainier Madrid said he advised the vice mayor to reject the challenge to show his tattoo, and mocked Trillanes for his interest in the vice mayor’s body.
“Is he gay?” he asked.
Asked if he had seen the vice mayor’s tattoo, Madrid said: “I have not seen it because I’m not gay.”
Paolo and presidential son-in-law Manases Carpio denied allegations that they were accepting payments to smooth shipments through Customs.
In their respective opening statements, Paolo and Carpio said they attended the investigation out of respect for the Senate as an institution. They said the allegations against them are baseless and purely based on rumors.
Facing the Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing into the smuggling of 605 kilos of shabu facilitated through the BOC, Paolo, reading a prepared statement said he is appearing to set the record straight, as his children had been affected by the allegations against him.
“Once and for all I now have the time to deny any and all baseless allegations thrown against me. I complied with the invitation of the committee as a gesture of respect for the Senate.
“My presence here is for the Filipino people and to my fellow Davaoeños to whom I serve. I am very sorry but I cannot answer allegations based on hearsay.
“In closing, a senator once said that we are a family of murderers and I am untouchable,” he said.
He then quoted a member of the city council of Davao, saying: “Every dog has his day. The law of karma will operate especially on those with evil intent.”
Carpio also read a prepared speech, in which he denied knowing or meeting self-confessed Customs fixer Mark Ruben Taguba.
Taguba had earlier named Paolo and Carpio as head of the so-called “Davao Group,” which facilitated shipments at the Customs in exchange for huge bribes.
A day after testifying in the Senate hearing that he gave P8 million to the group to make sure his shipments would not be placed in alert, Taguba said his knowledge on Paolo and Carpio’s involvement in the Davao Group was merely based on hearsay.
“I am here before this committee to formally declare that I have no knowledge of or involvement in the illegal drug shipments which is the subject matter of this inquiry,” said Carpio, husband of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.
He also lamented how he and his brother-in law (Paolo) have been “publicly crucified” based on rumors and gossips.
He also said he went to the BOC because he was working on cases, which dated back to the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III.
“I am a lawyer by profession. My practice involves representing my clients in courts, including the Bureau of Customs,” Carpio said.
“I am here before this committee to formally declare that I have no knowledge or involvement in illegal drug shipments…and to assist the committee in whatever way I can as a resource person,” he added.
Both Paolo and Carpio said they had no knowledge of the so-called Davao Group and the “tara” system or bribery at the BOC.
During the hearing, Trillanes presented photos of the vice mayor with Kenneth Dong, the alleged middle man in the P6.4-billion shipment of shabu.
The senator also pressed Paolo and Carpio to show their bank accounts, but they invoked the Bank Secrecy Law.
Trillanes maintained that Paolo had ill-gotten wealth that could have come from smuggling and illegal drugs.
The senator also said he is certain that President Duterte knows that his son is a member of the drug triad. “
At the hearing, Paolo admitted to being friends with the alleged smuggler, Charlie Tan, who allegedly brought in the P6.4 billion shabu shipment.
The Palace said Trillanes should have substantial proof to support his allegations linking Paolo to international drug syndicates.
Responding to Trillanes’ claims that Paolo was part of a drug triad, presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said that allegations were “pretty drastic.”
“Those are very serious allegations and he needs to have some substantial evidence to support that statement,” Abella said during a briefing.
Abella said the senator should support his claims and not through “pictures and anecdotes.”
“For matters like that, I think he really needs to be able to provide substantial evidence. I mean, aside from just pictures and anecdotes. You know, these are very serious allegations and implications,” he said.
Chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo scored the opposition senator for spreading ‘malicious propaganda’ against the presidential son and his brother-in-law, Manases Carpio.
At the resumption of Senate probe into P6.4 billion worth of shabu shipment from China, Trillanes said he received intelligence report from a foreign country that Duterte is part of a drug triad, which could verified through a colored dragon-like tattoo on his back.
Abella said that Duterte and Carpio’s appearance before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearings on the smuggling mess “demonstrates that both gentlemen are willing and ready to face malicious allegations intended to impugn their character and credibility.”
He said, however, that the President has said on numerous occasions that he would not interfere and he believes that both his son and Carpio, can hold their own at the Senate.
