Trillanes on sedition charges: Bring them on

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV yesterday rebuked chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo for saying that he is liable for inciting to sedition for criticizing President Duterte.

Trillanes told Panelo to stop talking and just file a case against him if he is convinced he did something wrong.

The senator was reacting to Panelo’s statement that he is inciting the Filipinos to hate the President.

“I will not be intimidated by such remarks,” said Trillanes, who has been critical of Duterte since the presidential elections.

He has accused the President of amassing over P2 billion in wealth, which he alleged Duterte did not declare in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.

Trillanes has branded the President as a murderer during his term as mayor of Davao City for allegedly ordering the Davao death squad (DDS) to carry out extrajudicial killings.

It was Trillanes who facilitated the emergence of self-confessed DDS members Edgar Matobato and retired police officer Arthur Lascañas, who both testified that they were ordered to kill several personalities by Duterte when he was still mayor.

The senator said seven more people would come out to corroborate the claims of Matobato and Lascañas.

He said five of the seven are said to be DDS vigilantes.

Though it is unlikely that the new witnesses would be allowed to testify before the Senate hearing, Trillanes said that they do not necessarily have to make their revelations at the Senate.

“We need to inform the public and that’s why I’m going to be very persistent. I’m going to expose, we need to expose just for the people to wake up and snap out of this dream that Duterte is the leader they want. No, the Duterte I know is different from the Duterte they know,” he said.