Trillanes says unperturbed by Duterte’s ‘scare tactics’

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Tuesday accused President Rodrigo Duterte of resorting to “scare” and “bullying” tactics,” citing as example the revival of the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) issue against him.

Duterte threatened over the weekend to expose how former President Benigno Aquino III and his allies, including Trillanes, continued with the DAP despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that it was illegal.

Asked why he thought the President was reviving the DAP issue against him, the senator said at a forum in the Senate: “Naghahanap kasi s’ya ng pwede nyang gamitin para matakot ako, para siraan ako. And he’s been doing that, ‘yung scare tactics na ‘yan, ‘yung bully tactics na ‘yan.”

(He found an issue to use to threaten and malign me. He’s doing these scare and bully tactics.)

READ: Trillanes dares Duterte: Give proof I misspent DAP

Trillanes then noted how the President had been using his so-called “narcolist” to scare local officials, congressmen, and even some senators.

Another example of the President’s scare tactic, he said, was the filing of charges against Senator Leila de Lima, who has been detained at Camp Crame for alleged drug links.

READ: De Lima tells birthday boy Duterte: Stop being a bully

But unlike other lawmakers who do not want to “attract” attention, Trillanes said he was not afraid of the President.

“Hindi ako natatakot dyan. Kahit ilabas n’ya kung ano man ‘yung hawak n’ya dahil lahat ng proyekto namin na in-allocate whether through PDAF or DAP man ‘yan ay posted sa aming website at lahat ‘yan ay dinaanan na ng COA. May special audit pa lahat ‘yan and walang problema d’yan,” he said.

(I am not afraid even if he releases whatever documents he has because all the projects funded though PDAF or DAP are posted on our website and are audited by the Commission on Audit. They have gone through a special audit, so no problem.)

PDAF is Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), which was  declared unconstitutional by the high tribunal.

In fact, Trillanes said, he thought the funds allotted for his projects were part of his PDAF and he belatedly learned that it was called DAP when the issue came out in the media.

He also clarified that the funds were not given to them in cash as they only identified their projects and submit them to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for funding.

It was the DBM, he said, that would release the funds to local or national government units that would implement the projects.

Trillanes said they received the PDAF even before the SC declared it unconstitutional in November, 2013. IDL/rga