Sen. Trillanes should put up or shut up
After all that had been said and done, what has Senator Antonio Trillanes IV achieved with his current efforts to attack the president, the present administration, and the Duterte family? Has he established by substantial evidence the many things that he alleged, for instance, that Vice Mayor Paulo Duterte is a member of the Chinese drug triad? Is the honorable gentleman from Bicol in possession of any documentary, real or testimonial evidence to substantiate what he is endlessly mouthing about? Is he doing all these really in aid of legislation? If so, what piece of legislative enactment is he or his staff crafting to be filed soon in Congress? Or, are all of these in pursuant of a narrow and partisan political agenda? Are all these much ado intended just for plain politicking? If it be so, this is a big waste of public fund.
If Trillanes has the evidence against the Dutertes, let him go to court. Let him charge Polong Duterte before the Ombudsman or wherever. If he has evidence against Atty. Mans Carpio, let him go ahead and start the process and then leave the pillars of justice do their respective jobs.
Why is a senator of the republic using the Senate as a forum for maligning people and besmirching the reputation of peaceful citizens? If he has the goods on any one, let him put up or shut up. He is just hiding under the mantle of parliamentary immunity, abusing the processes of legislative investigations in order to project himself as a knight in a shining armor, at the expense of the president and the president's son and son-in-law.
Is Trillanes completely clean and immaculate? What I know is that all politicians are tainted. The only difference is that some would admit it, while the others continue to pretend and mask themselves with self-righteousness.
Trillanes, to my best recollection and personal knowledge, has been reported to have too many consultants being paid with public funds. But then, until this date, I have yet to see and to hear any useful piece of legislation that he principally authored. He should be reminded, with due respect, that the Filipino electorate elected him to make laws. That is his principal mandate, neither to filibuster in Senate hearings nor to trade insults with fellow senators, much less to bully witnesses or resource persons who refuse to be pressured to show their backs for tattoos.
If he wants to produce evidence, let him find it himself, or instruct his many consultants to do their jobs for him, and not to unduly pressure guests to incriminate themselves before the national television.
The Senate is a legislative and not an investigative body. They are neither courts (except when they hear an impeachment case) nor quasi-judicial bodies, much less a substitute for the police authorities and prosecutorial agencies. The Senate only hears as an incidental, accessory, and support task to the main function of legislation. But with people like Trillanes in the upper house, it appears that the Senate has become a quasi-judicial body taking away from the courts the job of investigation. This should not be allowed to continue unrestrained. The people should tell their senators to do what they were elected for. And if they have evidence against anybody, let them go to court and prove their case. If not, then let them keep their peace.
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