Duterte lawyer on Trillanes plunder claims: No case filed by COA

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

The legal counsel of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday disputed the claim of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV that the mayor hired 11,000 ghost employees in Davao City in 2014.

“If the Commission on Audit (COA) found the hiring of contractual employees irregular, then it would have already filed a case against Duterte. But there’s none, so what is Trillanes talking about? He is a congenital liar and a publicity hound,” Salvador Panelo, Duterte’s lawyer, said.

Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) spokesperson Atty. Paola Alvarez said the accusation raised by Trillanes was an old issue.

“This is an old issue that Mayor Duterte has already explained as without any basis. The city government hired various employees and assigned them to different agencies for a certain period of time. They were contractual employees that the city government accommodated to give them temporary employment,” Alvarez said.

READ: Duterte used bank accounts to launder funds from ‘ghost workers’–Trillanes

Alvarez then turned the table on Trillanes, asking, “Why is it that your driver and household help are on the list of your Senate consultants?”

Alvarez was referring to allegations against Trillanes that more than half of the monthly allocation for his office went to the salaries of his consultants, including a houseboy, family drivers, media workers, campaign donors, ex-mutineer-friends and a brother who was supposedly getting P71,200 a month.

She said Trillanes “spent the biggest Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or pork barrel even when he was in jail for the crime of launching two failed palace coups.”

“He should explain who are the ghost recipients of pork barrel funds,” she said.

Alvarez said the senator was only seeking attention.

READ: Duterte camp on plunder case: Trillanes only wants fancy attention

“It appears that Sen. Trillanes now only wants to throw allegations left and right so he will still be in the public eye since he is the perennial cellar-dweller in all surveys,” she said.

“We are not bothered by the scurrilous allegations of Sen. Trillanes who is a vicious attack dog unleashed by Malacañang to derail Mayor Duterte’s presidential bid,” she added.

Alvarez also thanked the supporters of Duterte.

“We thank our supporters that despite all the baseless allegations thrown at us, we are still getting warm support from all sectors throughout the country. The bandwagon of change is unstoppable,” she said. JE/rga

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