A GROUP of lawyers has asked the Pasay City Prosecutor’s Office to prosecute Senator Antonio Trillanes IV for “conspiracy to commit coup d’ etat” when he allegedly incited soldiers to shoot President Rodrigo Duterte during his privilege speech last month.
The group led by former congressmen Jacinto Paras and Glenn Chong filed charges of inciting sedition, proposing to commit coup d’ etat and graft against Trillanes before the prosecutor’s office.
The group cited as basis for its complaint the statement of Trillanes during his speech that the soldiers might shoot Duterte to fulfill his wish that he be shot if the allegations he had hidden wealth was proven.
“Now, Mr. Duterte said he can be shot dead if there is P40 million in his accounts. He said that in front of the soldiers,” said the complaint quoting Trillanes.
Meanwhile, Trillanes assailed the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption that he described as “Duterte minions” for filing a sedition complaint against him before the Pasay City Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday.
“These Duterte minions are doing all sorts of harassment against me in the hope that they would be able to divert my attention,” said Trillanes, a rabid critic of Duterte and his family.
Aside from extrajudicial killings, Trillanes has also accused Duterte and his family of amassing ill-gotten wealth through various anomalies.
The lawyers’ group accused Trillanes of committing “conspiracy or proposal to commit coup d’ etat and inciting sedition” for encouraging the military to go up against the President and that he should be indicted under Articles 136 and 142 of the Revised Penal Code.
In his privilege speech on Oct. 3, Trillanes accused Duterte of having bank accounts with transactions amounting to over P2 billion from September 2006 to December 2015.
But Manuelito Luna, the complainants’ counsel, said the speeches by Trillanes”•including his privilege speech in the Senate”•were not protected by immunity from suits.
“The Oct. 3 privilege speech against the President and the government is not protected speech under the Speech or Debate Clause,” Luna said.
The complaint cited as another basis Trillanes’ speech during the launch of the Tindig Pilipinas movement on Oct. 14 involving Duterte’s alleged bank deposits.
He claimed that one of the alleged accounts had deposits of P50 million at least 13 times.
He also said that, in another bank account, there were at least 20 deposits of P40 million to P50 million each.
He insinuated that Duterte bought in just one day insurance for his four children worth P80 million.
He said he had evidence consisting of bank transaction records from the Anti-Money Laundering Council, which denied such a claim.