TRILLANES GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
THERE is no need to destabilize the administration of President Duterte because it is now “self-destructing,” Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a veteran of destabilization attempts against then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said on Tuesday.
On Saturday, Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco said a destabilization plot against the government was brewing and that the Liberal Party (LP) and Trillanes were behind it.
Malacañang sees the Senate investigation of alleged extrajudicial killings in Mr. Duterte’s war on drugs, opened last month by Sen. Leila de Lima, a member of the LP, as a destabilization attempt against the administration.
Trillanes, a member of the Nacionalista Party, is the lone ally of De Lima in the investigation, which has been taken over by Mr. Duterte’s allies after they stripped her of the chairmanship of the justice and human rights committee.
Trillanes is a former Navy officer who led a junior military officers’ mutiny on July 27, 2003, and a military occupation of the Manila Peninsula hotel in Makati on Nov. 27, 2007, both aimed against Arroyo.
No coup plots
Arroyo now holds the seat of the second district of Pampanga province in the House of Representatives.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trillanes said he had not heard of any coup plots against Mr. Duterte.
He said he had not been talking to anyone about destabilizing Mr. Duterte’s administration.
“You don’t need a coup (to bring down) the government because it’s doing it on its own … . They are self-destructing,” he said.
It is “unfortunate,” he said, that Mr. Duterte, who is under heavy international criticism over his bloody war on drugs, was “dragging the whole country down.”
Trillanes disagreed with the President’s defenders that the Senate inquiry into the extrajudicial killings was the reason for the negative image of the Philippines in the international community.
Duterte’s foul mouth
On the contrary, Trillanes said, it is Mr. Duterte who is giving the Philippines a bad image because of his foul mouth.
Mr. Duterte has insulted US President Barack Obama, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the European Union, calling them “sons of bitches” and “stupid” for expressing concerns about human rights violations in his war on drugs.
More than 3,400 people have been killed by police and suspected vigilantes since Mr. Duterte launched the campaign against the illegal drug trade upon taking office on June 30.
He drew global criticism last week by comparing his war on drugs with Adolf Hitler’s attempt to exterminate the Jews before and during World War II and saying he would be “happy to slaughter” 3 million drug addicts in the Philippines.
The global firestorm that followed his comments forced Mr. Duterte to apologize to the Jews on Sunday.
“The whole country is going down with him,” Trillanes said.
Course of history
Asked whether he thought the self-destruction of Mr. Duterte would cause his allies to abandon him, Trillanes said history had shown that politicians would always go “where the people are.”
Trillanes also said the military, which had been professionalized under then President Benigno Aquino III, would not be divided and would follow the chain of command “as long as the chain of command is true to its mandate to the state and people.”