Aside from the pending sedition and inciting sedition charges, former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and three others are also facing possible prosecution for kidnapping with serious illegal detention before the Justice Department.
The kidnapping charge was filed by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group based on the complaint filed by a certain Guillerma Lalic Barrido, 43, a businesswoman from Davao City.
But Trillanes described the kidnapping charge as a “clear case of harassment and persecution,” saying he had never met Barrido.
“And where have you seen a case where a priest and a nun were with me in the kidnapping and we detained him in a convent?” Trillanes said.
Trillanes also wondered why the alleged kidnapped victim surfaced and filed her case only now when the kidnapping took place in 2016.
Trillanes aside, also named respondents were Fr. Albert Alejo, lawyer Jude Sabio and a certain Sister Ling of the Convent of Cannussian Sisters.
“It is clear from the foregoing that herein respondents feloniously, maliciously and intentionally put the complainant under detention for 14 days in order to force her to do something against her will,” the PNP-CIDG complaint says.
Barrido alleged that in 2017, Trillanes, a staunch critic of the Duterte administration, tried to bribe her to testify against President Rodrigo Duterte.
The private complainant narrated that she was detained from Dec. 6 to 21 of 2016, initially at the Cannussian convent until she was transferred to the Holy Spirit Convent in order to allegedly force her to sign a “ready-made” affidavit to destroy the reputation of the Duterte administration.
Trillanes denied Barrido’s accusation.
He said he did not know Barrido personally, and that the complaint was a form of harassment and persecution by the Duterte administration against its critics.
“Never ko na-meet ‘yan si Guillerma Arcillas or Barrido. Sa’n ka makakita na pari at madre daw ang kasama ko sa pagkidnap at sa kumbento pa daw siya dinetain. Bukod pa d’yan, 2016 pa raw siya kinidnap pero ngayon lang nagfile ng kaso,” Trillanes said in a text message.
“Ito na naman ay maliwanag na harassment case at persecution ni Duterte laban sa kanyang mga kritiko.”
Trillanes, along with other opposition personalities led by Vice President Leni Robredo, are facing a preliminary investigation into the complaint for sedition and other criminal charges filed by the PNP-CIDG in connection with their alleged participation in the plot to oust President Duterte.
The complaint against Trillanes and other opposition personalities heavily relied on the affidavit of Peter Joemel Advincula or the self-confessed “Bikoy” in the “Ang Totoong Narcolist” video series.
The PNP-CIDG accuses the respondents of planning to “spread false information against President Duterte and his family under Project Sodoma to agitate the general population into making mass protests with the possibility of bringing down the President from position and allow Vice President Robredo to succeed” by linking the President’s family members and close associates to the illegal drugs trade.
The PNP-CIDG said Project Sodoma was planned as early as August last year, and also as part of a plan to allegedly discredit the candidates of Hugpong ng Pagbabago while at the same time propping up those from the opposition Otso Diretso.
The complaint says the respondents planned and funded the creation of the Ang Totoong Narcolist video where Peter Joemel Advincula alias “Bikoy” linked members of the Duterte family in the narcotics trade and its spread via social media. With Macon Ramos-Araneta
