SENATOR Antonio Trillanes IV said the camp Vice President Jejomar Binay has no right to call for the filing of an ethics complaint against him over his alleged questionable hiring of consultants when Binay himself “has no balls” to face the Senate and answer the allegations being hurled at him.
“Sige mag-file sila (Let them file)…I will welcome that,” Trillanes told reporters on Monday when sought to react to the statement of Binay’s lawyer, Rico Quicho, who said that the senator should be investigated by the Senate ethics committee for allegedly using public funds to pay his consultants, which supposedly included a houseboy and family drivers.
“Wala silang karapatan mag-recommend ng kung anu-ano ni wala nga silang bayag humarap dito sa aming imbestigasyon,” said Trillanes.
(They have no right to recommend anything since they don’t even have balls to face us here in our investigation.)
Asked who he was referring to, the senator said: “Si Vice President Binay! Ke tatapang kapag mago-operate e pero pagharapan na, wala naman so sabi ko hindi pwedeng maging presidente yang ganyang walang bayag.”
(The Vice President! He’s the guts to operate but he can’t even face us here so I said we can’t have a president who doesn’t have balls.)
Binay repeatedly snubbed the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee, which is investigating the corruption allegations against him. It was Trillanes who initiated the Senate probe.
And the senator now suspects that the Binay camp could be behind the consultancy issue now being raised against him.
“Ang kampo ni Vice President Binay ang pinaghihinalaan kong nasa likod nyan pero sabi ko nga game tayo dyan,” said Trillanes.
READ: Trillanes: COA has cleared my consultancy services expenses
But the senator categorically denied a newspaper report that he was using the Senate funds for his household and personal expenses.
He said the names mentioned in the report were “confidential agents,” whom he hired as consultants to help him in the ongoing investigation against Binay.