Paolo Duterte, brother-in-law file libel cases against Trillanes

DAVAO CITY — Former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and his brother-in-law, lawyer Manases Carpio, filed separate libel complaints against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV at the City Prosecutors’ Office here.

The libel complaints were filed as the senator was trying to ward off a possible arrest due to the revocation of the amnesty granted to him by the previous administration.

Duterte and Carpio’s complaints were received by the City Prosecutor’s Office here on Thursday.

The complaints sprung from a phone patch teleradio interview with DYAB Cebu with broadcaster Leo Lastimosa on September 8 last year, where Trillanes had accused the brothers-in-law of extorting money from Uber and “other companies.”

“Respondent’s teleradio accusations and black propaganda against me and Atty. Carpio are pregnant with malice aforethought and evil intent,” Duterte wrote in his complaint, adding he first learned about it from friends in Cebu.

“Watching it, I was aghast to hear the respondent maliciously accusing me and my brother-in-law of supposed rampant and widespread corruption and extortion,” Duterte said, adding that the accusations were based on information reportedly fed to Trillanes by a source whom the senator did not identify.

“Worse, respondent had also defamed and labeled me and Atty. Carpio of corruption and extortion not only against Uber and the “other companies” but also in the Road Board and in DPWH as part of supposed corrupt tentacles and shakedown,” Duterte said.

The presidential son argued that Trillanes’ “false imputation” against him does not fall under any of the exemptions under Article 354 of the Revised Penal Code.

“First, it was not a private communication in the performance of any legal, moral or social duty; second, it was not a fair and true report,” Duterte said. “On the contrary, respondent’s accusation against my person was intended to malign, destroy and kill my good name and reputation because of my being the son of our President Rodrigo Roa Duterte,” he said.

‘Black propaganda’

Meanwhile, Carpio said in his complaint that Trillanes’ accusations against him and Duterte about rampant corruption and extortion were “downright libelous, defamatory and pure black propaganda.”

“Respondent has purveyed and labeled me and my brother in law as corrupt grafters and extortionists,” Carpio said, referring to Trillanes.

“Evidently, it was and is intended to malign, destroy and kill my good name and reputation. This is especially so as my wife, Mayor Sara Z. Duterte, is the daughter of our sitting President Rodrigo Duterte,” Carpio said.

Duterte and Carpio also disclosed a civil case for damages, entitled, “Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and Atty Manases R. Carpio vs Antonio Trillanes,” has already been docketed and is pending before the Regional Trial Court in Davao City. /vvp