Photo from Office of Senator Richard Gordon
Update
Senator Richard Gordon on Monday night formally filed his complaint against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV before the Senate ethics committee.
In the 23-page complaint, Gordon said Trillanes engaged in “unparliamentary acts and uttered unparliamentary language and exhibited disorderly behavior,” which is “causing damage to the Senate and to the people,” during the Aug. 31 hearing on the P6.4 billion drug shipment that went past Bureau of Customs.
The complaint was received by the Ethics committee secretary at 7:44 p.m.
The complaint stemmed from Trillanes’ tag against Gordon’s blue ribbon committee as “comite de abswelto” as he accused Gordon and Senate Majority Leader Tito Sotto III of lawyering for the presidential son Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and his brother-in-law Mans Carpio.
“This case is neither frivolous nor is it being filed out of spite,” Gordon said.
He stressed that the Senate is “not a forum for chaos and jiggery-pokery.”
“All senators are expected to be the embodiment of competence, integrity and diligence. As members of the Senate, we are also expected to conduct ourselves in accordance with accepted and prescribed standards of behavior, and not exhibit abject ignorance of both the Rules of the Senate and proper decorum,” he wrote.
Calling the blue ribbon committee a “comite de abswelto,” according to Gordon, is a violation of the Article 358 of the Revised Penal Code for oral defamation or slander, and of the Rules of the Senate.
Trillanes also “lied, unfairly and maliciously charged Gordon and Sotto of bias and partiality,” said the complainant.
Also among the basis of his complaint was when Trillanes branded the Senate as “one of the most damaged institutions in the government” with most of its members afraid of going against the Duterte administration.
Earlier, Gordon said “more than 14” senators have expressed support for his ethics complaint.
Premature
But Trillanes said, it’s still too early for Gordon to assume that he has at least 14 colleagues backing his ethics complaint.
Trillanes said deliberating the complaint will be a “long process” for the Senate “so it’s premature for (Gordon) to say who among the senators would support him.”
“Eventually, it will be presented to the plenary and then it will be voted on by then malalaman natin, so it’s premature for him to say kung sino yung mga susupport sa kanya,” he said in an ambush interview at the Senate on Monday.
Trillanes also said he’s confident that he “did not do anything improper nor unparliamentary.”
“Mas marami tayong nakitang karumal-dumal na ginagawa ng iba but walang ganyan so sige, naiintindihan ko ‘yung political game nila,” he said.
Trillanes said he would readily face the complaint.
“Ngayon inaantay ko lang, kapag dumating ‘yan haharapin ko ‘yan and I will not let it be a distraction sa bigger issue na si (Davao City Vice Mayor) Paolo Duterte at (presidential son-in-law) Mans Carpio ay naiinvolve dito sa shabu shipment na ito at sa smuggling sa Customs,” he said.
On Monday afternoon, the committee formally invited Duterte and Carpio in the next hearing on corruption allegations at Customs on Thursday, Sept. 7.
Both Duterte and Carpio have committed to attend the inquiry.