Trillanes calls pro-Duterte senators cowards

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV yesterday lamented that “lapdogs” of the Duterte administration now comprise the Senate, which is supposed to fulfill its role as “the last bastion of democracy” in the country.

Speaking to reporters during the weekly Samahang Plaridel forum at the Manila Hotel, Trillanes, a critic of President Duterte, said that the inaction of his fellow senators has reduced them to being mere puppets of the current administration.

“(Senators) don’t want to investigate anymore,” Trillanes said, even calling the pro-Duterte senators “cowards” for failing to perform their duty to look into alleged anomalies in the government.

Trillanes said the Senate is now one of the most damaged institutions in government, apart from the judiciary, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) since Duterte assumed the presidency.

“Here, you see senators afraid. They say they’re allies (of the President) only because they could not admit they’re afraid,” he said.

The opposition senator said that while other senators whose committees are in the “periphery” quietly do their work, some in the major panels who should be at the forefront of checking abuses of the government are not doing their jobs because “their tails are between their legs.”

Trillanes also said the PNP is being damaged by Duterte’s leading the alleged summary executions of drug suspects and other human rights violations that he feared are being emulated by some police officers.

The senator said the AFP is also slowly being influenced by Duterte into supporting what the senator claimed was the Chief Executive’s grand plan to impose martial law nationwide.

 ‘Duterte won’t finish his term’

Trillanes said Duterte is not a true leader but someone who is lazy and gets by through tough talk.

He said he does not believe Duterte will be able to last until 2022 and finish his six-year term, as he expects The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) to act on complaints of mass killings against him.

Lawyer Jose Sabio earlier asked the ICC to investigate, leading to issuing a warrant of arrest against Duterte for the thousands of drug-related extrajudicial killings in the country.

Trillanes and Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano have filed a supplemental complaint before the ICC.

The senator said Duterte will also face another impeachment complaint next year.

Colleagues hit back

Trillanes’ colleagues hit back at him and questioned his state of mind.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said he had heard Trillanes’ tirades before.

“Why revive it just for him to be in the news?” Pimentel said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said he did not know where Trillanes was coming from and was not even “sure if he is still rational in his thinking.”

“One thing I’m sure about, he is dead wrong, he is so out of touch with reality, if not hallucinating too much. Calling one’s own colleagues cowards wholesale and without qualifying is the darnest thing he can do,” Lacson said. – With Perseus Echeminada