Trillanes hoping Duterte won’t finish term

MANILA, Philippines -  Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV is hoping that President Duterte won’t be able to finish his term until 2022, if only to stop the drug-related extrajudicial killings that have claimed the lives of thousands in just eight months.

“I hope not,” Trillanes told dzBB when asked over the weekend whether Duterte should finish his term after being repeatedly accused of ordering the summary executions of criminals and opponents since he was mayor of Davao City.

“There are about 8,000 people who have died. They’ve been ordered killed. They can say that some of them were (drug) addicts, some were pushers but they weren’t given due process. They weren’t given a chance to undergo rehabilitation and reform themselves,” he said in Filipino.

The death toll in the anti-drug campaign tallied by various news organizations has breached 7,000, of which about a third were attributed to legitimate police operations.

He said many of those killed under Duterte’s war on drugs were innocent, killed because of mistaken identity or stray bullets “or whatever.”

“This is serious so we have to rise up because this (extrajudicial killing) can happen to you. I hope he won’t finish his term because our country will really suffer,” the senator said.

Trillanes, the former Navy officer who was jailed for several years for attempting to oust then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2003, ruled out his participation in any coup against Duterte.

He said there are many legal options to get Duterte to step down and that includes impeachment that will emanate from the House of Representatives.

He added he is ready for any effort at retribution coming from Duterte, whom he said was even contemplating on having him killed using members of the Davao death squad.

Meanwhile, the Council of Asian Liberals and Democrats (CALD) expressed alarm over what it said were rising threats to freedom in the Philippines and Cambodia.

Leaders of political parties from 10 countries in Asia convened in Bangkok, Thailand for three days until Saturday to discuss the new wave of populism, authoritarianism and extremism now gripping the region and the world.

The political parties are members of CALD, a regional network of liberal and democratic political parties in Asia. The council passed two resolutions on Cambodia and the Philippines condemning efforts to curtail political rights, said Abhisit Vejjajiva, CALD chairperson.

“We collectively recognized that the wave of discontent that led to the rise of populist leaders and the growing support for illiberal and authoritarian policies are partly a result of the failure to genuinely listen to the issues that matter to the people, and to adequately respond to their needs,” the CALD said.