SENATOR Antonio Trillanes IV said Wednesday the country would be better off with Vice President Jejomar Binay as president than Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who had boasted about personally killing criminals and his enemies.
He told ANC it would be a disaster for the Philippines if Duterte won the presidency in this year’s elections. He made the statement when asked to choose between Davao City’s mayor and Binay, whom Trillanes had been investigating for his alleged corruption.
“I can’t imagine myself saying this, but it’s going to be so much worse [if Duterte became president],” said Trillanes who is running for vice president in May.
But he quickly added that choosing Binay over the tough-talking mayor did not mean he would stop questioning Binay’s alleged corruption.
“It doesn’t mean I’m going to turn a blind eye [to] his [Binay’s] ways, because I am 100 percent that he will not change,” Trillanes said.
“If you put a plunderer into the presidency, you don’t expect the guy to be a saint. Expect him to plunder more.”
Trillanes also said Duterte’s leadership style definitely would not work in the national scale although it might have worked in Davao.
“You don’t run a country like that. There should be a vision, a program of action that you would have to enumerate,” he said.
“You don’t just say ‘I’m going to beat criminals in three to six months. What are you going to do?”
Trillanes said a presidency under administration standard bearer Manuel Roxas II would be similar to the Aquino administration.
“A Roxas presidency, I envision, would be more of the same, and if that’s okay with you, then vote for the guy,” he said.
Trillanes, who supports Senator Grace Poe’s presidential bid, is unfazed by the disqualification cases filed against her.
“I believe at some point the Supreme Court will see the light,” he said.
“We’re in a democracy and the vote of the people is sovereign.”