Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV on Friday denied he was involved in plans to hatch a coup d’etat against presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, saying there are legal ways to unseat a duly elected chief executive.
Trillanes, who had led two failed uprisings against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, was reacting to statements from Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison that the “Trillanes gang” had declared war on Duterte.
“Let me categorically state that I am not part of or even planning any coup d’etat. Presumptive President-elect Duterte was duly elected by the people and the proper way of removing him from office, in case he violates the Constitution, is through impeachment,” Trillanes said in a statement.
But if members of the military would revolt against the Duterte government, he said he would not wonder why.
“In the unlikely scenario that there would be a coup by disgruntled members of the AFP/PNP in the future, it would only be because they couldn’t stand the sight of Joma Sison and his communist buddies being part of a coalition government after remorselessly killing tens of thousands soldiers, policemen and innocent civilians in pursuit of their universally discredit ideology,” he said.
In the last weeks before the May 9 elections, Trillanes accused Duterte of keeping a secret bank account that had contained more than P200 million at one point.
After initially denying it, Duterte admitted to owning the account but said it had less than P200 million.