Rody: I have early stage insanity; Trillanes stage 3

MANILA, Philippines — Sure he’s insane, but his affliction is just in its early stage, President Duterte said yesterday. On the other hand, he said his nemesis, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, is already at stage 3.

Duterte poked fun yesterday at Trillanes, who had asked him to seek “psychiatric help” for challenging the senator to a gun duel in the wake of their public exchange on illegal bank deposits.

The President joked that he consulted a psychiatrist upon the senator’s suggestion. 

“Trillanes said, ‘Duterte should see a psychiatrist’. So, I went to a psychiatrist for consultation. Then, there was a series of questions and I was given an aptitude test,” he added during a briefing late Tuesday night that ended early yesterday morning.

During the briefing, Duterte expressed his anger at the senator for accusing him and his family of having illegal bank deposits.

Duterte said the doctor told him that he was lucky for being in the early stage of insanity because another patient was in a later stage.

“‘Yung isang pasyente ko (my other patient), stage three’,” Duterte said, quoting his doctor. “Sabi ko, ‘Sino ’yan siya ( I asked the doctor who is the patient), doc?’ ‘Di si Trililing. Kaya nga Trililing tawag eh’.”

About a week ago, Trillanes said Duterte should visit a psychiatrist, saying he was clearly having a meltdown. 

Trillanes added that he is seriously concerned that Duterte no longer has the psychological capacity to govern, following his issued challenge for a gun duel.

Duterte had cursed the senator shortly after Trillanes dragged presidential son Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and son-in-law Manases Carpio into the Senate probe on the smuggling of P6.4 billion of shabu at the Bureau of Customs.

In his speech during the Araw ng Digos celebration in Digos City, Duterte called the senator a “braggart” and a “coward,” before spewing invectives while a gun was tucked in his waistline.

After the brothers-in-law appeared before the Senate, Trillanes earned the monicker of “Trililing,” a mashup of the senator’s surname and Filipino word for insane.

Trillanes and Paolo’s exchange at the Senate inquiry went viral after the senator asked the vice mayor to reveal a tattoo on his back, which Trillanes claimed would prove his links to the Chinese triad. – With Christina Mendez