Former Customs Xray Division Chief Atty. Lourdes Mangaoang at the House hearing on alleged shabu shipment. INQUIRER / Lyn Rillon
DAVAO CITY – Former Davao City vice mayor Paolo “Pulong” Duterte on Friday said he was elated after an official of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) cleared him of involvement in over P6.8-billion shabu smuggling.
Duterte also said this only proved that the accusations against him by opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV were “all products of hallucinations, rumors and lies.”
In a statement, Duterte vowed to continue going after Trillanes and make him pay for maligning him, his family and his supporters.
“I have warned before that what Trillanes said about me should not be believed because he is an expert in and weaving rumors and unfounded stories,” Paolo said.
He said the supposed rumors affected his family, particularly his children.
SENATOR ANTONIO TRILLANES IV / SEPTEMBER 6, 2018
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV shows a news clipping of him filing his application for amnesty at a news briefing outside the senator’s office at the Senate in Pasay City on Thursday, September 6, 2018. His lawyers are poised to file at the Supreme Court a temporary restraining order for his arrest.
INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
Duterte called Trillanes, the government’s staunchest critic, a rumor-monger.
“Worse, he himself believes in his own rumors,” Duterte said.
The eldest son of President Rodrigo Duterte issued the statement after lawyer Lourdes
, Customs X-ray expert, maintained that Paolo or anyone from the First Family was not involved in the supposed multi-billion peso shabu (crystal meth) haul that slipped through the BOC.
She said former Customs intelligence officer Jimmy Guban would not have difficulty in finding importers if the magnetic lifters containing the illegal drugs were indeed owned by Duterte as the former Davao City vice mayor had many friends in the business.
Paolo, who last year resigned from his post following Trillanes’ allegations he was into drug smuggling, said he was happy “that the truth was slowly coming out.”
“Thank you for all those who stood for the truth and for what is right,” he said.