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The war between Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and President Rodrigo Duterte shows no signs of ending.
Yesterday, the anti-Duterte senator said that he’s welcoming a government probe into the allegedly self-serving deals made by his late father, Captain Antonio Sr., and 84-year-old mother Estelita when his father was still working in the Philippine Navy.
He even said that if his parents were proven guilty of any wrongdoing, he would gladly walk into any jail in Davao City, where Duterte served for many years as mayor.
“I welcome Duterte’s statement on probing supposed transactions of my deceased father and my 84-year-old mother. In fact, I’ll raise the ante. If he finds anything [irregular], again, I would voluntarily walk into any detention facility, even in Davao,” Trillanes said in a statement.
Trillanes was reacting to Duterte’s accusation on Monday that Estelita, now afflicted with Parkinson’s disease, was a supplier for the Navy, a conflict of interest given that her husband was then a high-ranking officer, said the Inquirer.
Duterte said the government is investigating the case “quietly” during a speech made at a public event attended by the media in Davao City.
He said in a mix of English and Filipino: “We are looking into the paper [trail]. We’re investigating quietly those deals made during the time of his father as well as his mother.”
While the investigation is still ongoing, the president already sounded like he was convinced that Antonio Sr. and Estelita are guilty.
The Philippine Star quoted him saying: “You can be very sure everything will come out.”
In his statement, Trillanes said that instead of just focusing on him, Duterte should also look into two separate cases of suspected methamphetamine smuggling that happened in 2017 and a few months ago.
Trillanes was referring to the meth worth PHP6.4 billion (more than US$121.647 million) found in a warehouse in Valenzuela City three days after it left the Manila International Container Port.
Another is the alleged illegal drugs worth PHP11 billion (US$209.222 million) that the Philippines Drug Agency claims were smuggled into the country in August by a Taiwanese syndicate. The drugs have yet to be found.
Said Trillanes: “He should at least pretend that he’s mad and ask [the police] to seek the drug lord[s] responsible for smuggling the PHP6.4 billion and PHP11 billion meth shipments.”
Trillanes is currently out on bail after a Makati court ordered him arrested for his role in the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege. The case was dismissed after he was granted amnesty by President Benigno Aquino III in 2010, but the amnesty was revoked by Duterte in September.
Another Makati court rejected the government’s plea to have Trillanes re-arrested for his role in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny. The judge said the dismissal of the coup d’etat charges against Trillanes was “final and executory.”
