Paolo Duterte turns table on Trillanes
Cleared in two congressional inquiries, former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte is turning the tables on his accuser, Senator Antonio TrillanesIV, as he readies criminal and civil complaints against the opposition lawmaker in connection with the purported 16.4-billion shabu smuggling case last year.
The presidential son revealed Thursday that libel charges are being readied against Trillanes for maliciously linking him to the case that both the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability and Senate Blue Ribbon investigated.
The two legislative bodies found nothing that would implicate President Duterte’s son and his brother-in-law, Manases Carpio, to the illegal drugs smuggling.
The young Duterte vowed to file criminal and civil libel charges against Trillanes for “viciously destroying my name, maligning my reputation and integrity, and for deliberately manufacturing lies and spreading black propaganda against me.”
“Senator Trillanes manufactured lies and deliberately spread these lies with the obvious intention of destroying my name and maligning my reputation, with a view to impacting negatively against our beloved President,” he said.
“The senator was apparently emboldened by his false reliance on and abuse of his parliamentary immunity. But this immunity does not apply to libelous remarks made during media interviews, clearly as these attacks were done outside the halls of the Senate – and definitely not when these were discharged with the pure intention of destroying me,” the former local official said.
Earlier, Paolo labeled the accusation made by Trillanes as “pure lies and based entirely on gossip – and worse, as part of desperate black propaganda” against his father and the government.
A staunch critic of the Duerte administration, Trillanes is currently engaged in a bitter verbal tussle with another Duterte, Mayor Sara Duterte, Paolo’s sister.
In December, he also filed civil damage suit against Trillanes over the senator’s downright false allegations that he was involved in graft and corruption.
Trillanes stands by accusation But Trillanes maintained that his claims against the former Davao City vice mayor were not made up.
“I had a basis to link his name in the shabu shipment. It's not as if I just took his name out in thin air and dragged and linked it in this whole mess. I was able to show that in the inquiry ,” Trillanes said in an interview on A NC.
“Of course, I know the law. That's why I don't make statements unnecessarily. When I make allegations, I have a basis,” he added.
Trillanes said he will face the complaint, which he called “frivolous.”
“Clearly, this is another frivolous lawsuit and is meant to harass and divert my attention. But I will not be cowed, I'll face the lawsuit squarely,” he said.
He also questioned the timing of the charges which came months after the Senate inquiry, saying the complaint is part of the “trumped-up” charges supposedly hurled by the administration against members of the opposition.