Trillanes dares Gordon: Go ahead, file ethics case

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV dared Sen. Richard Gordon to push through with filing an ethics complaint against him, a move which he said would not be supported by their colleagues.

“Go ahead. I’m not afraid of that. I’m not afraid of (President) Duterte; what more him. Let him try and we’ll see how that turns out,” Trillanes said Thursday night, referring to Gordon.

Trillanes aired his confidence that a complaint against him before the Senate ethics committee would not prosper because he did not do anything that would warrant that course of action and Gordon would not muster enough numbers to support his move.

He said Gordon would be lucky to get three or four senators who would sign the complaint. Trillanes claimed that many of their colleagues were already disgruntled with the way Gordon is handling the Blue Ribbon committee hearings as its chairman.

“This is just personal to Senator Gordon. His ego was hurt and that’s all there is to it,” Trillanes said.

“If he believes he can get a majority to sign, then he has lost touch with the pulse of the senators,” he added.

Even though the ethics committee is headed by Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, who did not exactly support Trillanes on his efforts to summon President Duterte’s son, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and Manases Carpio, the husband of Duterte’s daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, Trillanes said he trusts him to be fair in his actions.

He said that the perception is that Sotto and Gordon are on the same side, but when it comes to handling complaints before the ethics committee, he said that Sotto is even-handed and objective.

Sotto said he does not think that any intervention between Gordon and Trillanes would work and that it would be best for all senators to “follow parliamentary procedures, period.”

Sen. Grace Poe said that she does not think the matter should go as far as reaching the ethics committee and that the two senators can just get together and work things out.

“What is important is to always observe decorum and respect during hearings,” Poe said.

Poe said senators should always respect the opinions of their colleagues, no matter how different it is from their own.

Aguirre get Trillanes’ ire

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice finally got the Senate committee on finance’s approval of its proposed P17.27-billion budget for 2018, but only after Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II got a dressing down from Trillanes.

Fresh from his verbal tussle with Gordon at the Blue Ribbon committee hearing on the smuggling of shabu from China just a few hours earlier, Trillanes went after Aguirre during the budget hearing, taking him to task for several allegations he made against him and other members of the political opposition, which he said were without basis.

Trillanes came prepared for his confrontation with Aguirre, bringing with him a video presentation of seven instances when he issued false statements about him and other public personalities.

In one instance, Trillanes said that Aguirre accused him of being involved in the stabbing of Jaybee Sebastian inside the New Bilibid Prisons.

He also called Trillanes, Sens. Francis Pangilinan and Leila de Lima as “dilawan” and “gagong senador;” theorized that the death of Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo involved the Korean mafia; accused former senator Jamby Madrigal and Biñan Rep. Marlyn Alonte of bribing high-profile inmates to recant their testimonies against De Lima; linked Madrigal to the alleged ambush of Lalaine Madrigal-Martinez, the wife of a convicted kidnapper; tagged Trillanes and Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon in the pork barrel controversy; and linking Trillanes, Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV and former presidential political adviser Ronald Llamas to the Marawi siege.

Just the other day, Aguirre was also denounced by the Liberal Party for allegedly accusing them of bribing the parents of slain 17-year-old student Kian delos Santos.

Aguirre denied making the allegation and said that he merely confirmed hearing similar reports about this.

Trillanes said that Aguirre has the makings of a great scriptwriter, even better than the writers of the television series “Game of Thrones.”

He said that Aguirre was very gullible in processing information that he receives.

Aguirre repeatedly tried to respond to Trillanes, at one point even telling the senator to keep his cool.

Trillanes reminded Aguirre that he should be apolitical and not to use the power of his office to persecute people.

Sen. Loren Legarda, chair of the committee on finance, also advised Aguirre to be more responsible in his statements. With Paolo Romero