Thursday, August 11, 2022
manilastandard.net
ADVERTISEMENT
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Others
    • Pets
    • Pop.Life
      • Newsmakers
      • Hangouts
      • A-Pop
      • Post Its
      • Performances
      • Malls & Bazaars
      • Hobbies & Collections
    • Technology
      • Gadgets
      • Computers
      • Business
      • Tech Plus
    • MS ON THE ROAD
      • Sedan
      • SUV
      • Truck
      • Bike
      • Accessories
      • Motoring Plus
      • Commuter’s Corner
    • Home & Design
      • Residential
      • Commercial
      • Construction
      • Interior
    • Spotlight
    • Gallery
      • Photos
      • Videos
    • Events
      • Seminars
      • Exhibits
      • Community
    • Biyahero
      • Travel Features
      • Travel Reels
      • Travel Logs
  • Advertise with Us
No Result
View All Result
manilastandard.net
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion Columns Lowdown by Jojo Robles

Trillanes’ latest meltdown

Jojo RoblesbyJojo Robles
June 23, 2017, 12:01 am
in Lowdown by Jojo Robles
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
83
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Email

Hell hath no fury like an opposition senator embarrassed on the world stage. And so Senator Antonio Trillanes went on the warpath yesterday, apparently after hearing all the laughter elicited by his appearance on BBC’s HARDtalk show.

Trillanes’ performance during the half-hour interview with HARDtalk presenter Stephen Sackur was all over social media yesterday. And not in the way the senator or his fellow propagandists from the opposition would have liked.

Unlike so many foreign media outlets that have drunk the anti-Duterte Kool-Aid and who have all too frequently served as platforms for the opposition from which to bash the Philippine president, Sackur and his team did their own research on current issues in this country. And they came up with the sort of questions that made Trillanes —never know for his eloquence or even for his firm grasp of the facts—look like a buffoon on international television.

To be sure, Trillanes gamely tried to defend his opposition to President Rodrigo Duterte’s policies. But the senator could only lamely predict that Duterte’s popularity was bound to drop, when asked why he seemed so out of tune with what an overwhelming majority of Filipinos actually feel about their leader.

Pressed by Sackur to explain, Trillanes could only say that “the bulk” of Filipinos don’t really know what’s happening “on the ground.” As if Trillanes, who ceased to be an ordinary Filipino since his election to the elite Senate, knows better than the regular Pinoy on the street what it feels like to have people like him inflicted on them on a daily basis.

ADVERTISEMENT

Asked about the proliferation of illegal drugs in the Philippines, Trillanes came up with the totally incredible and unsupported claim that the number of drug addicts was a lot less than what Duterte and his officials are saying. He even denied that “shabu”—known abroad as crystal meth—was the drug of choice in the Philippines, saying that marijuana was actually the most abused narcotic in the land.

When Sackur demanded to know if Trillanes was a “democrat,” the senator could only say that he belonged to the Nacionalista Party. “I’m not asking about your political affiliation,” the presenter said, probably wondering if all Filipino senators were as dumb as the person he was interviewing.

It got to the point where Sackur actually made it look painful for all Filipinos to watch the unmasking of Trillanes as a know-nothing opposition leader. I mean, all of us already know what Trillanes is capable of, but we don’t really need HARDtalk to advertise the senator’s incompetence all over the world.

Trillanes probably thought he would score easy points against Duterte in an interview with yet another clueless foreign journalist. Little did he know that Sackur and his team actually wanted to get to the bottom of Trillanes’ opposition to the president.

And the HARDtalk interview succeeded in proving that Trillanes could not even explain why he was opposed to Duterte. And that he could not even present facts that could convince any real journalist who wasn’t already sympathetic to the senator’s cause, like all those writers and pundits from the New York Times, Time magazine and other clearly biased outlets.

HARDtalk and Stephen Sackur tore Trillanes a new one, as they say. And that got the senator really mad afterwards.

* * *

What Trillanes did was to call a press conference. Free at last from the insistent and well-researched questions of Sackur, Trillanes railed against the Duterte administration for being an “epic failure” and for not making good on its promises to the Filipino people after nearly one year in office.

But it all sounded like the senator was trying to make up for his mistake of expecting softball questions requiring him merely to give his usual unthinking answers and walking right into an ambush. There was nothing new in Trillanes’ allegations, except the figurative but unmistakeable smell of his own burnt flesh, which was still bearing the tread-marks of the BBC’s presenter’s questioning.

If the opposition learned anything from Trillanes’ meltdown on international television yesterday, it should be that they cannot send an unprepared, inarticulate fool to represent them in an important forum. Trillanes’ blustery style of making unfounded claims may go over well with a local media that still believes he is one of the most credible critics of the Duterte administration, despite the fact that the citizenry has long tired of his antics; but not every foreign media outlet can be deceived by the fakery that Trillanes is known for.

The opposition clearly has more eloquent champions than the two-time coup plotter who, when at a loss for a reply, has been known to walk out of the hall or to turn off someone else’s microphone. It’s the BBC, for crying out loud; you don’t send a third-string defender to do battle with LeBron James.

I expect Trillanes to keep trying to redeem himself after his meltdown by making even more and more outlandish accusations against Duterte. But I also think even his colleagues in the opposition will be snickering as he tries to salve his wounded pride by becoming more and more bitterly opposed to the president.

But it’s like that time when Trillanes was humiliatingly pulled out of the Peninsula Hotel by his waistband. Try as he might, Trillanes will never make us forget his spectacular debacles.

Tags: BBCHARDtalkSenator Antonio TrillanesStephen SackurTrillanes’ latest meltdown
ADVERTISEMENT
Jojo Robles

Jojo Robles

Related Posts

Out for pizza

February 8, 2018, 12:01 am
0
148
Out for pizza

Vice President Leni Robredo, I fear, is not really interested in speeding up the recount of the votes cast in...

Read more

Not so fast

February 6, 2018, 12:09 am
0
135
Not so fast

First of all, the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital team of experts didn’t state that 14 children died as...

Read more

Duque feels the heat

February 1, 2018, 12:01 am
0
133
Duque feels the heat

If Health Secretary-designate Francisco Duque thinks that he can get confirmed if he just keeps his head down and stays...

Read more

Did Martin invent socmed?

January 31, 2018, 12:07 am
0
132
Did Martin invent socmed?

How quickly we forget. “Weaponizing” the Internet and social media for political purposes, especially by government communications officials using state...

Read more

Noynoy’s barricade

January 30, 2018, 12:01 am
0
137
Noynoy’s barricade

For once, I miss Cory Aquino.  Because Cory really went out of her way not to show in public the...

Read more

The Thomasian Way

January 26, 2018, 12:01 am
0
131
The Thomasian Way

Over at UST, they will virtually lynch you for having the “wrong” politics. But they will turn a blind eye,...

Read more

Stories you may like

  • Zubiri new Senate President, vows to uphold chamber’s independence

    Marcos sees stronger PH-India relations

    5744 shares
    Share 2298 Tweet 1436
  • Showbiz icon Cherie Gil dies at 59

    2615 shares
    Share 1046 Tweet 654
  • Replevin and its common law origins

    1259 shares
    Share 504 Tweet 315
  • Fuel rollback next week, power rate cut in August

    1203 shares
    Share 481 Tweet 301
  • PBBM should probe excessive salaries, allowances of Diokno, BSP officials

    856 shares
    Share 342 Tweet 214

Print Edition

View More

Recent Posts

  • Fresh fears after Facebook’s role in US abortion case
  • Russian strikes near Ukraine nuclear plant kill 14
  • Serena Williams beaten by Bencic at WTA Toronto Masters
  • North Korean leader declares ‘shining victory’ over Covid
  • Michael Jordan ‘Last Dance’ jersey to be auctioned in September
  • Economists urge US to return Afghanistan’s frozen assets
  • Sneakers for Makati : AB4.0
  • BBM: No to sugar import plan

Advertisement

Latest News

Economists urge US to return Afghanistan’s frozen assets

byAFP
August 11, 2022, 7:00 am
0
152
Economists urge US to return Afghanistan’s frozen assets

Several dozen prominent US and international economists urged the United States Wednesday to hand over to Afghanistan $7 billion in...

Read more

Sneakers for Makati : AB4.0

byManila Standard
August 11, 2022, 1:20 am
0
1.1k
Sneakers for Makati : AB4.0

Read more

BBM: No to sugar import plan

byVince Lopezand1 others
August 11, 2022, 1:10 am
0
337
Largest rare pink diamond found

SRA proposal to buy 300k MT abroad intended to boost tight supply Despite tight supply, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on...

Read more

Senate on lockdown, 3 senators positive for COVID

byMacon Ramos-Araneta
August 11, 2022, 1:05 am
0
269
Senate asked for quick OK of DDR bill

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Wednesday said visitors will not be allowed entry to the Senate premises for three...

Read more

Congress asked to stretch validity of COVID vax law

byWillie Casasand2 others
August 11, 2022, 1:00 am
0
172
Covid-19 misinformation bolsters anti-vaccine movement

The Department of Health (DOH) has asked Congress to extend the validity of the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act, saying its...

Read more

Advertisement

ADVERTISEMENT
Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

ABOUT US

Manila Standard

Manila Standard website (manilastandard.net), launched in August 2002, extends the newspaper’s reach beyond its traditional readers and makes its brand of Philippine news and opinion available to a much wider and geographically diverse readership here and overseas.

Digital Edition

In tone and content, the online edition mirrors the editorial thrust of the newspaper. While hewing to the traditional precepts of fairness and objectivity, MS believes the news of the day need not be staid, overly long or dry. Stories are succinct, readable and written in a lively style that has become a hallmark of the newspaper.

Download – Today’s Paper

Search

No Result
View All Result

6th Floor Universal Re Bldg., 106 Paseo De Roxas cor. Perea Street, Legaspi Village, 1226 Makati City Philippines

Trunklines: 832-5554, 832-5556, 832-5558

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • News
    • Top Stories
    • National
    • World News
    • Pinoy Abroad
    • Features
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Columns
    • Soundbytes
  • LGUs
    • NCR
    • Luzon
    • Visayas
    • Mindanao
  • Business
    • Corporate
    • Economy & Trade
    • Stocks
    • Money
    • Agri & Mining
    • Power & Tech
    • IT & Telecom
  • Sports
    • Basketball
    • Volleyball
    • Fightsports
    • Active
    • Sports Plus
    • One Championship
    • Columns
  • Entertainment
    • TV & Movies
    • Celebrity Profiles
    • Music & Concerts
    • Digital Media
    • Columns
  • Lifestyle
    • Food
    • Culture & Media
    • Fashion
    • Health and Home
    • Leisure
    • Shopping
    • Columns
  • Pop.Life
    • Newsmakers
    • Hangouts
    • A-Pop
    • Post Its
    • Performances
    • Malls & Bazaars
    • Hobbies & Collections
  • Technology
    • Gadgets
    • Computers
    • Business
    • Tech Plus
  • MS ON THE ROAD
    • Sedan
    • SUV
    • Truck
    • Bike
    • Accessories
    • Motoring Plus
    • Commuter’s Corner
  • Home & Design
    • Residential
    • Commercial
    • Construction
    • Interior
  • Spotlight
  • Gallery
    • Photos
    • Videos
  • Events
    • Seminars
    • Exhibits
    • Community
  • Biyahero
    • Travel Features
    • Travel Reels
    • Travel Logs
  • Pets
  • Advertise with Us

© 2021 Manila Standard - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Install Manila Standard Web App

Install App