Former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte mocked Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and labeled him as no guts for not facing the case filed against him.
Yesterday, the Davao City Prosecutor’s Office issued a subpoena against Trillanes ordering him to submit his counter-affidavit to the libel case filed by Duterte and his brother-in-law Atty. Manases Carpio within 10 days.
Trillanes quickly held a press conference inside the Senate Building and labeled the order of the Prosecutor’s Office as a trap, saying that he can be arrested once he went out due to the revocation of his amnesty.
“I’ll cross the bridge when we get there, kung kinakailangang pumunta run (Davao), pupunta ako,” Trillanes told the Senate media.
“Ang mga legal aspect hindi ko masagot kasi ang abogado ko ang nakakaalam nyan, but sa akin kung kailangang puntahan para maayos yan, pupuntahan ko,” he added.
The fiercest critic of President Rodrigo Duterte also said that the libel case filed against him is a form of “harassment”.
“It’s very, very obvious na talagang naghahanap ng paraan to shake me down, to harass me,” he said
Trillanes also accused the judges of Davao City of receiving bribes from Pulong.
“Alam niyo yong mga judges dyan sa Davao Cty ay nakakareceive ng special allowances from the city government. Iyong kapatid ang mayor, so maliwanag na medyo makaka-impluwensya na ‘yon,” Trillanes told reporters.
However, the presidential son believes that Trillanes’ is just making another alibi to avoid facing the case that they filed.
In his Facebook post, Duterte said that Trillanes should face the case like what they did when the latter invited them in the Senate and accused them of being a member of an illegal drug triad.
Pulong also said that the Senator cannot invoke his parliamentary immunity anymore.
“Puro dakdak duwag nman pala. Ayaw at takot harapin ang kaso skanya. Walang B*yag! Atleast kmi hinarap namin sya s senado. Di na nya pwed gamitin ang parliamentary immunity nya ngayon.” Pulong said in his post.
Most of the supporters of Duterte also believed that Trillanes’ is just trying to use the victim card to gather sympathy from the public.
The rift between Sen. Trillanes and Vice Mayor Duterte started when the former accused the presidential son of being a drug lord.
They also challenged each other to take a drug test after Duterte accused Trillanes of using illegal drugs.
However, the libel case filed by Duterte against Trillanes is not about the drug triad accusation, but because the Senator claimed in a radio interview that the presidential son and his brother-in-law were asking money from Uber and other companies.
Trillanes also claimed that Paolo and Carpio were involved in extortion activities.