Palace to Trillanes: Brace for jail anew after ‘Bikoy’ exposé
MANILA, Philippines — Outgoing Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV should brace himself with the possibility of being jailed again as he was tagged in the latest alleged ouster plot against President Rodrigo Duterte, Malacañang said.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the statement after Peter Joemel Advincula, who claims to be “Bikoy” of the narcolist videos, retracted his previous statements and accused the Liberal Party and Trillanes of being the ones behind the videos that linked allies and relatives of President Rodrigo Duterte’s first family to the illegal drug trade.
“While many will wish Mr. Trillanes good riddance as he is about to leave the hallowed halls of the Senate at the end of June of this year, we will instead wish him luck as he faces another prospect of being placed behind bars again as the self-confessed black propagandist turns against his master, even as his victims look forward to seeing the Senate, or better yet the Government, without the cantankerously obnoxious coup plotter,” Panelo said in a statement Friday night.
In a speech on Thursday night, Duterte hit Trillanes as “shameless,” tagging him to be behind the ouster plot against him.
Duterte also accused Trillanes of having hidden properties under other people’s names.
READ: Trillanes belittles Duterte claim that he has hidden properties
Trillanes has denied the President’s claims and had earlier said that the latter’s revelations of Advincula were “another ploy of the administration to harass the opposition.”
But Panelo said Trillanes should address Advincula’s accusations.
“The outgoing Senator should first address the serious allegation pointing to him as the mastermind and in conspiracy with certain political leaders identified with the opposition of the unlawful plot to topple the Duterte Administration,” he said.
The Palace official said Duterte “remains standing as the nation’s most beloved and trusted leader” as “Trillanes continues to spew his poisonous invectives” against the President.
Panelo cited how Trillanes, one of Duterte’s staunchest critics, was “all praises” when the narcolist videos against Duterte were released.
“We recall that Mr. Trillanes was all praises for the videos which were intended to incite sedition against the duly-constituted and people-elected President, even arrogantly wishing that he was part of such a felony, and then suddenly after being ratted as the creator of the sinister plot pronounces that he knows nothing about the same,” he said.
“His action is reminiscent of his act of staging a military rebellion and immediately surrendering without even firing a single shot after he saw the government forces were set to pulverize him and his fellow mutineers. How does one describe such a man?” he added.
Panelo said “history keeps repeating itself.”
“In Mr. Trillanes’ case, first as a tragedy and second as a farce. This describes well the case of the outgoing Senator,” he added.
“After having been set free from incarceration by the previous administration,” he said one would expect Trillanes “to learn his lessons and repay the nation that educated, fed and clothed him, with a record of selfless public service.”
“Instead, he evolved to be a political attack dog setting fire to a vicious black propaganda against the President, who was then a City Mayor of Davao, of having a fictitious bank account amounting to P211 million when the latter only had about P16,000 deposited at the Ortigas branch of BPI,” he said.
“He deviously released this black propaganda a week before the presidential elections, almost identical to the time frame of the release of the recent videos of Bikoy before the midterm national elections. The two black propagandas are eerily similar as to the timing of their release,” he added.
Panelo said “Trillanes’ greater service to the nation is his mandatory exit from the Senate where he distinguished himself as a destroyer of reputations of people, including causing the self-extinction of a gentleman military officer whom he disrespected and humiliated before the nation.” (Editor: Mike U. Frialde)
