Call him ‘Professor Trillanes’

MANILA, Philippines — Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV will now have a “more relaxing life” in academe as he will begin teaching at the University of the Philippines-Diliman and the Ateneo de Manila University.

Trillanes, a critic of President Duterte, said he would be teaching public policy at UP while the course he would be handling at the Ateneo is still being studied.

“It’s a more relaxing life after the Senate and right now, I’m preparing for my teaching work this coming semester,” Trillanes told ABS-CBN News Channel’s “Early Edition.”

Before ending his term last June 30, he told reporters he intended to enter academe, and that he was ready for anything the Duterte administration may throw at him, including time in jail.

Trillanes also said he was proud of his legislative record in his 12 years in the Senate.

The former opposition lawmaker said he always felt vulnerable to the administration even when he was a member of the Senate, when asked whether or not he felt more exposed to possible legal attacks from Malacañang now that he was out of the Senate.

He added that since Duterte assumed office in 2016, he already has some 14 cases filed against him.

“Whether I’m a senator or not, it didn’t stop Mr. Duterte from persecuting people like me from the opposition,” Trillanes said.

The former senator recalled attempts to arrest him in 2018 on coup charges when Duterte issued a proclamation in August last year revoking the amnesty granted to him in 2011.

Trillanes described Duterte as being “consistent” in trying to remove any semblance of opposition in the country.

In June 2017, Trillanes and then Magdalo party-list group representative Gary Alejano filed a supplemental complaint against Duterte before the International Criminal Court in The Hague to press the ICC to conduct an investigation leading to his arrest for the thousands of drug-related extrajudicial killings in the country.