Senator Panfilo Lacson on Monday lashed back at Senator Antonio Trillanes IV for calling the senators “cowards” or “puppets” wholesale and without qualifying.
“That is the darnest thing he can do,” said Lacson who belongs to the majority bloc in the Senate.
During yesterday’s Samahang Plaridel “Kapihan sa Manila Hotel,” Trillanes said the Senate has been reduced to legislators acting as “puppets” under the administrqtion of President Rodrigo Duterte from its role as the “last bastion of democracy.”
He also took potshots at his colleagues who he said would rather be allies (of the administration) because they would not admit that they’re scared.
“I can see in this Senate senators who are cowards,” Trillanes said.
“They are allies because they are afraid. Especially those handling committees which should be in the forefront of checking abuses of the administration. Those who should check are the ones who are afraid,” said Trillanes.
But Lacson said he does not know where Trillanes is coming from and he is not even sure if he is still rational in his thinking.
“One thing I’m sure about, he is dead wrong,” said Lacson who accused Trillanes is being so out of touch with reality, if not hallucinating too much.
Senate President Aquilino “Koko, Pimentel III refused to comment on Trillanes’ remarks, saying he had heard them before a number of times.
“Why revive it just for him to be n the news,” said Pimentel who is a partymate of the President at PDP-Laban.
Liberal Party president Senator Kiko Pangilinan simply said that as a third term senator, he has seen greater independence on the part of the Senate as an institution under the previous administration.
Pangilinan, who is also an opposition senator like Trillanes was referring to the administration of former President Noynoy Aquino. The former president and Pangilinan are both members of the former ruling Liberal Party.
Trillanes, a fierce critic of Duterte, also said the Senate is one of the most damaged institutions since Duterte took office last year.
He added that Duterte is trying to destroy several institutions, such as the Senate, the police, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines, in order to justify his plan to declare a nationwide martial law and establish a revolutionary government.
“For me he is destroying institutions. The first one is the police. The police is already being professionalized. But since he urged them to kill people, there are now policemen who commit murder. How can you now discipline them?,” Trillanes said same forum.
Trillanes cited as an example Arturo Lascañas, the self-confessed member of the Davao Death Squad who implicated President Duterte in the group’s grisly executions
“Lascañas thought this was just a job. Now that there was an offer of money, they became contract killers. Even media people, political enemies and competitors in business are being killed. That’s one institution that was destroyed,” said Trillanes.
“Now the AFP is being urged to rape and kill civilians. In this judiciary, he said he will not follow the Supreme Court. He is also destroying the media, since he has a social media propagandist who is killing the mainstream media,” he added.
“Corruption also worsened in the government. Slowly, it’s coming out. This will soon explode,” Trillanes said.
“But my fear, and I think this will happen. Duterte knows he cannot hide anymore. With so many problems now happening, he now needs a solution for this. And the solution he now sees is martial law or a revolutionary government,” Trillanes said.
“That is the only way he will be able to slip through this. He knows that the Filipino people will charge him for this. What will he do? He would have to declare martial law, establish a revolutionary government, then he will break the institutions, he will arrest the critics. We will become like North Korea,” he said
The senator also said he thinks Duterte is trying to estimate the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and wooing the soldiers to support his plan for a martial law.
“He is not yet confident. He plans to declare a national martial law, then this will need to pass through Congress and Supreme Court, and see if this will be followed by the AFP. He is not that confident now, that’s why he is wooing and trying to feel it,” said Trillanes.
He said this can be observed as Duterte is busy working on this.
“Duterte is not yet confident here, that is what holding him back. But once he is confident that the soldiers will follow him, then he will push through with this nationwide martial law, said Trillanes.
Trillanes added that his office had documented the promises of Duterte during the time the former mayor was campaigning for the presidency, saying that none of these campaign promises happened, and saying that the President is a liar.
Trillanes said Duterte had promised he will finish within three to six months the problems in crime, corruption and illegal drugs.
“He said this during the campaign. He is like a boodle boodle gang. That’s why he was voted for, because the people believed in him. But when he was elected, he just cursed, but three to six months later, crime, corruption and illegal drugs are still there,” said Trillanes.
The senator said that in another debate, Duterte said “give me three days, tatapusin ko ang smuggling (I will finish smuggling)”.
“But nothing happned. He said he will solve within 100 days the traffic problem. But they don’t even have one traffic program launch to solve this. You can be fooled by this. But victims of boodle boodle gang will remember this (failed promises),” said Trillanes.
He also mentioned that Duterte promised the soldiers that their salaries will be doubled August last year, then this was pushed to September, then December.
“He also gave the housing projects to the communists. He then promised bigger and better housing projects this December for the soldiers and policemen. But believe me they are not doing anything. He keeps on lying. He keeps on making promises,” said Trillanes. Trillanes also said that when Duterte lies, it looks as if he is telling the truth. “People want to believe this. He is good in tricking people.”
“Based on our research, the poor are afraid of Duterte. If they say something negative about Duterte, they might be included in the drug list. Generally, ordinary people are worried of their everyday income. But those who notice that their lives are not improving, they remember this, and that it is difficult to regain the trust of the government. I believe that is where we are going, especially now that more taxes will be imposed on commodities, such as LPG, gasoline, sugar, even three-in-one coffee,” he said.
But Trillanes said all is still reversible. “But up to when will this be? How much will we reverse?,” he asked.
Trillanes said that then President Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law for nine years. “Did he solve the problem? Or did he make it worse. The martial law before, the AFP before are not respecting human rights, as opposed to now who are professional soldiers,” he said.
Trillanes said with or without martial law, the capabilites of the AFP will only be the same. “It doesn’t mean that if you have martial law, they would improve their shooting skills, or they would have a stronger intelligence capability. No. The soldiers in Marawi would be doing the same thing even without martial law. It’s still the same military operations. If they need to do a house to house operations, they would do the same. If they need aerial bombardment, they would do it, whether there’s martial law or not. The AFP lacks troops. That’s why I am pushing for that bill that will allow us to recruit as many as 20,000 troops right away to address security needs. We cannot do this now because we are being controlled by the DBM because of the pension problem,” said Trillanes.