Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin | File photo by VOLTAIRE F. DOMINGO / Senate PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang dismissed former President Rodrigo Duterte’s claim that it is using former senator Antonio Trillanes IV to testify against the country’s former leader, describing this allegation as a “hallucination.”
In an ambush interview on Monday, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin was asked for a comment on Duterte’s allegation that Trillanes is a “Malacañang-sponsored” attack dog.
READ: Bank documents show Duterte’s drug war was ‘fake’ — Trillanes
“Hallucination… Mahirap nang mag komento sa mga ganyan. (It’s hard to comment on things like that.),” Bersamin said in the interview.
Duterte, during a phone call with Atty. Salvador Panelo last November 15, which was live streamed via TikTok, said, “Itong si Trillanes, talagang Malacañang-sponsored ‘yan. Hindi gagalaw ‘yan ng ganoon. Walang pera ‘yan.”
(Trillanes is Malacañang-sponsored. He wouldn’t move like that; he has no money.)
“Nagtataka ako bakit ang Malacañang ginagawa… Wala naman kaming kasalanan sa kanila. Hindi naman ako nag-aatake kay presidente. Pero alam ko si Trillanes, nagtatrabaho kay President Marcos,” Duterte added.
(I wonder why Malacañang is doing this… We haven’t done anything wrong to them. I’m not attacking the president. But I know Trillanes is working for President Marcos.)
These allegations were in relation to a House Quad committee hearing last November 13, where Trillanes presented bank documents and “paper trails,” reportedly showing that Duterte’s drug war was “fake” and just a cover-up for his alleged “drug syndicate.”
In the same hearing, Duterte got hold of his microphone and appeared to aim it at Trillanes after the former senator dared him to sign a bank secrecy waiver.