Presidential chief legal counsel Salvador Panelo. VINCE F. NONATO/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
The President’s chief legal counsel on Wednesday slammed Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV for calling President Rodrigo Duterte “corrupt.”
“Sen. Trillanes could be referring to himself when he described the President as corrupt,” Salvador Panelo, Presidential Legal Counsel, told reporters in a chance interview.
Panelo was reacting to the statement of Trillanes in a radio dzMM interview, insisting Duterte has P2 billion in the bank.
Trillanes claimed that Duterte was doing nothing against corruption in government because he himself was corrupt.
The senator earlier questioned the President’s bank transactions and the amount in his account at the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) during his term as Davao City mayor.
Panelo hit back at Trillanes, saying the senator should instead “explain his suspicious visits to China during PNoy’s (former President Benigno Aquino III) time.”
Trillanes said he was ready to resign if he was proven wrong about his accusations against Duterte.
“He doesn’t have to wait for that. He is undeserving of a Senate seat. He should resign now,” Panelo said.
Asked for his New Year greetings to Trillanes, Panelo said “May you have more nightmares to come.” RAM
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