Senate majority urged to rethink threat to file ethics case vs Trillanes

WORD WAR Senators Richard Gordon and Antonio Trillanes IV are pacified after their verbal exchange by Sen. Vicente Sotto III. —RICHARD A. REYES

Minority senators raised “serious concern” over the filing of ethics complaint against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

Trillanes is facing possible ethics complaint after he clashed with Senator Richard Gordon during the blue ribbon committee hearing on the P6.4-billion shabu shipment into the country.

Tempers flared when Gordon and Senate Majority leader Tito Sotto III opposed to Trillanes’ insistence that Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and his brother-in-law Mans Carpio be summoned to explain their alleged participation in smuggling and corruption within the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

Gordon threatened to file an ethics complaint against Trillanes after the incident on Thursday. Gordon said “a lot of senators” are going to sign the complaint.

The minority bloc stood behind Trillanes, as they noted “a pattern of filing of ethics complaints against senators who do not subscribe to the views of those aligned with the administration.”

Aside from Trillanes, members of the minority include Senators Franklin Drilon, the minority leader, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, and Leila de Lima, all belonging to the Liberal Party and Risa Hontiveros.

“We view with serious concern the threat of the filing of an ethics case against Senator Sonny Trillanes arising from the incidents that transpired in yesterday’s Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the P6.5-billion BoC shabu smuggling case,” they said in a statement.

“The Senate minority bloc stands behind Senator Sonny in his desire to ferret out the truth and will oppose efforts to stifle dissent and silence the opposition that are essential in a vibrant democracy,” they said.

The senators said they “(could) not help but ask our colleagues in the majority if this is an attempt to harass and intimidate a colleague in the opposition.”

“There appears to be a pattern of filing of ethics complaints against senators who do not subscribe to the views of those aligned with the administration,” they said.

“First were the cases filed against Senator de Lima sometime last year while she was chairperson of the Committee on Justice. One was an ethics case filed at the Lower House. The Senate majority then voted to remove her as chair.”

“Now we have this threat of a case filed against Senator Sonny that came after his line of questioning in the hearing led to linking Paolo Duterte to smuggling in the BoC.”

The minority senators asked: “Is this ethics case meant to silence the opposition in the Senate and the critics of the administration?”

They urged their colleagues in the majority bloc to “rethink their position” about the threat to file ethics complaint against Trillanes.

“Even assuming for the sake of argument that this is not the intention of the Senate majority, the result of a decision of either a suspension or dismissal will have the same effect of weakening the opposition in particular and our democracy as a whole where dissent must be respected,” they said.