MANILA, Philippines – Sen. Antonio Trillanes described yesterday Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as a “psycho” who does not deserve to become the next president.
The word war between Trillanes and Duterte raged as the two have resorted to name-calling in the past days.
On Saturday, Trillanes told Duterte not to mess with him after the latter called him an “idiot.”
“I am now so motivated to make sure that he doesn’t become the president of our country. We cannot have a psycho as our commander-in-chief. Within the next few days, he would be exposed as a fraud,” Trillanes said.
Duterte, a frontrunner in the latest poll surveys, said Trillanes is just making noise to boost his chances of winning. He added that the former Navy officer got mad at him after he chose Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano for a running mate.
“We only had a photo opportunity together and he asked me if he could be my vice president. I told him, ‘don’t get mad at me because you are not deserving.’ The son of a ***** staged a coup d’etat, damaged a hotel and he is telling the world about it. Now he is even boasting,” Duterte told reporters at a chance interview in Cavite on Friday.
Meanwhile, Perfecto Jaime Tagalog, who alleged that Duterte’s son Paolo and his cohorts are behind the rice smuggling activities in Davao City, has accused the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) of abandoning him.
Tagalog, who belongs to the Coalition of Filipino Consumers, also exposed and filed charges of plunder, graft and indirect bribery against former Philippine National Police chief Alan Purisima.
He recalled that at the height of his expose against Purisima, it was VACC founding chairman and president Dante Jimenez who called on him and offered to help him.
“In my fight against the former PNP chief, Ka Dante called me up and offered to help me regarding my security. Since then, we have been together in the war against illegal activities and in helping the families of murder victims. It is sad that in my crusade against smuggling, the VACC abandoned and even condemned me,” Tagalog lamented.
He added that aside from rice smuggling, Duterte’s son is involved in sneaking in electronic products, luxury vehicles, canned goods and used clothes.
Tagalog identified Lito Banayo and Davidson Bangayan, alias David Tan, and a certain Glen Escandor as among the younger Duterte’s alleged cohorts.
Both Banayo, former National Food Authority administrator, and Tan were charged by the National Bureau of Investigation for rice smuggling.
Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said Tagalog’s claims should be investigated.
Even senior citizens
The country’s largest group of senior citizens threw its support behind the presidential candidacy of Sen. Grace Poe.
The Senior Citizens Partylist led by Godofredo Arquiza said they are going for Poe and not Duterte, who has low regard for the sickly and senior citizens.
Arquiza said there is snowballing criticism against Duterte’s penchant for uttering disgusting remarks and making fun of even the most serious situations.
“Duterte simply doesn’t have what it takes to act as a decent human being, much less as a leader of the Filipino people,” he added.
Duterte earlier remarked that some of the elderly roaming around Davao City’s parks are pathetic and wished them to simply drop dead.
“Duterte may be a fellow senior citizen, but he has not gained any wisdom befitting his age. We completely disown him,” he added. – With Non Alquitran