The businesswoman who admitted she was being bribed by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to testify against President Rodrigo Duterte on the dreaded Davao Death Squad killings has sought help from the Department of Justice.
Accompanied by lawyer Bruce Rivera, Guillermina Arcillas met with Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and expressed her willingness to file criminal charges against Trillanes.
Aguirre offered Arcillas with coverage of the government’s Witness Protection Program for her safety but she declined the offer.
“She wants to file a case. She was offered witness protection, but we didn’t want it at this point since we don’t want this thing to be colored by politics. We just have to make sure that she was properly secured,” Rivera said in an interview after the closed-door meeting.
Arcillas said she decided to seek help from the DoJ after receiving death threats that she believed came from the camp of the senator.
“No other than Senator Trillanes,” Arcillas said, when asked who she thought was behind the threats.
Arcillas also reiterated that she has no links with President Duterte and has never talked to him.
“Up to now, I haven’t made contact with the President. We never had any communication,” she said in Filipino.
Rivera, former lawyer of pork barrel scam queen Janet Lim-Napoles, clarified that he is not Arcillas’ lawyer and that he only accompanied her to the office of Aguirre.
“She has a lawyer in Davao City who will handle everything. I’m just here to help her out in talking with Secretary Aguirre and deciphering for everyone on how we are going to do about it,’ he said.
Arcillas earlier claimed that one of Trillanes’ staff member offered her P1 million to implicate Duterte in the DDS killings and support the testimonies of witnesses Edgar Matobato and Arthur Lascañas.
She said she was offered P500,000 as initial downpayment and another P500,000 after the filing of the case against Duterte before the International Criminal Court.
Duterte, Aguirre and other government officials are facing a complaint for crimes against humanity before ICC filed by lawyer Jude Sabio, the legal counsel of Matobato, a self-confessed former members of the DDS.
Trillanes has already denied Arcillas allegation even calling her a “planted witness.”
The senator alleged that the businesswoman has a reputation of asking for money from different groups, including organization of overseas Filipino workers.