Senator Antonio Trillanes. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV is next.
Solicitor General Jose Calida on Monday said his office was now studying the filing of charges against Trillanes for coddling self-confessed criminals Arthur Lascañas and Edgar Matobato.
In a pro-Duterte rally in Luneta on Saturday, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II asked the crowd who they want to go next after Sen. Leila de Lima, a staunch critic of President Duterte’s human rights record, was arrested on drug trafficking charges.
“[Trillanes is] also a person of interest. Why is he hiding and protecting this self-confessed criminal?” Calida said in a press briefing, referring to retired policeman Lascañas.
Trillanes has revived the issue of supposedly undeclared P2.2 billion in transactions from 2006 to 2015 in Duterte’s bank accounts.
Calida said Trillanes was liable for providing security to a person who admitted killing his two brothers.
But as to what specific charges to be filed, Calida said, “Give me more time and I’ll have the proper case to be filed against him.”
“How can you believe the statement of a perjurer? But since he wants to be in the limelight and he claims to have killed so many persons, he should be arrested,” Calida said.
“Even (Edgar) Matobato, why is (Trillanes) coddling them? Is this the job of a senator?” Calida said.
Lascañas and Matobato have provided details on the killings allegedly carried out by the Davao Death Squad./ac