2 more libel cases vs Trillanes
After conducting an investigation on the complaint filed by Paolo Z. Duterte at CIDG, the agency has referred the case against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to the City Prosecutor’s Office
Presidential son and former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo “Pulong” Duterte have filed two new libel cases against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV yesterday, September 19, 2018.
The libel cases were in line with the allegation of the senator to Pulong’s involvement in the P6.4 billion drug shipment last year which the senator has repeatedly called him as “drug smuggler”.
The camp of Duterte filed a complaint against Trillanes to the Criminal Investigation and Detention Group (CIDG) on June this year. The CIDG then referred the case to the Davao City Prosecutor’s Office after they conducted an investigation on the complaint filed by Duterte. “This CIDG invesµtigation started some-
time in June,” Rainier Madrid, the lawyer of Duterte, adding that the investigation took three months to be completed.
“We have to respect the process of the CIDG as well as the process of the city prosecutors office, that is why we came all the way here from Manila just to file this case because we live in the legal process. Unlike the process of the amnesty issue of Trillanes,” Madrid said.
There are now a total of four libel cases filed against Trillanes, three coming from Pulong and one from lawyer Mans Carpio.
Meanwhile, Madrid said Trillanes does not want to come to Davao City to face the cases filed against him because he has stated that Davao City is under the control of the Dutertes.
He added that the senator fears that there will be a bias in the justice system here.
“That is even libelous to accuse the judges [in Davao City] or the prosecutors of being bias or not being capable of being fair,” Madrid said.
He said Trillanes need not file a motion for the transfer of the case to be heard in Metro Manila.
“As a lawyer, we should rely on the system because that is the only sytem we have. So we have to trust in the system,” he said.