For the second time, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV is battling the country’s leader and faces the possibility of imprisonment.
But the former military mutineer said fighting President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was harder than standing up to President Duterte despite his description of the former Davao City mayor as a “more ruthless and more evil person.”
“The fight was more difficult during the time of GMA because we led the struggle from within the detention facility. And it took us seven years before we were able to get out,” Trillanes said in an interview at his office on Wednesday night.
Trillanes was first jailed in 2003 after leading some 300 junior military officers comprising the Magdalo group against Arroyo, denouncing alleged massive corruption in her government.
Amnesty
The mutineers surrendered after briefly occupying the Oakwood apartment building, which they had rigged with explosives.
In 2007, shortly after being elected to his first term as senator from his detention cell, he and other officers walked out of their trial and attempted to mount another uprising against Arroyo and holed up in the posh Manila Peninsula hotel. They were gassed out of the hotel within hours.
Trillanes and the other officers received amnesty from former President Benigno Aquino III in 2011.
He is now facing a possible return to jail after Mr. Duterte voided his amnesty on the grounds that he did not submit an application and admit his guilt. Trillanes said the charge was unfounded.
As a lawmaker, Trillanes said he now had a platform “to ventilate the grievances of the people and expose anomalies, whereas during the time of GMA, we didn’t have that.”
Political base
He said the President’s strength was his political base, “the people he fooled,” but that was being eroded every day.
He believes the number of President Duterte’s supporters will continue to dwindle due to problems that Filipinos continue to face, including extrajudicial killings and the deteriorating economy.
He likened the President to an “ampaw,” a puffed rice snack consisting of a hard shell with a hollow, air-filled core.
“If he collapses, it would be quick. I’m saying that not as an insult, but an objective description of the kind of administration or regime that he has,” he said.
Describing himself as fatalist, Trillanes said he was preparing for the worst because Mr. Duterte wanted him behind bars at whatever cost.
‘Fate given by God’
He said his ordeal was difficult for his wife and two children, but they knew the value of his struggle.
“If I give up this fight and allow Duterte to prevail, he might do something worse to the country, the same country where they live,” Trillanes said.
“But this is the fate given to us by God and I have to accept it,” he said.