THE Pasay City prosecutors office has found probable cause to charge Senator Antonio Trillanes IV with sedition when he allegedly incited soldiers to shoot President Rodrigo Duterte during his privilege speech in October last year.
Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Joahna Gabatino-Lim, however, dismissed the complaint of Conspiracy and Proposal to Commit Coup d’etat against Trillanes, a known Duterte critic.
But Trillanes vowed to face the case against him.
“I’m not like Duterte who’s afraid to face cases. I’ll face this case,” Trillanes said.
He then referred to Duterte’s decision to withdraw from the International Criminal Court.
In November 2017, a group of lawyers led by former congressmen Jacinto Paras and Glenn Chong filed charges against Trillanes allegedly for inciting sedition and proposing a coup d’etat.
The group cited as basis the statement of Trillanes during his speech that 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.
The 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.
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In his privileged 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’ legal counsel, said the speeches by Trillanes”•including his privileged speech in the Senate”•were not protected by immunity from suits.
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 his claim.
Trillanes, however, said Paras and his co-lawyers’ plan to file sedition raps against him were “absurd.”
He claimed 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.
Trillanes made the statement in response to a speech made by Duterte in which he said anybody could shoot him if it was proven that his lifetime savings exceeded P40 million.