Palace hints Trillanes may end up in jail

MANILA, Philippines — Outgoing Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV may end up behind bars if he is found to have masterminded the “Ang Totoong Narcolist” video linking President Duterte, his family and friends to the drug trade, Malacañang said yesterday.

“While many will wish Mr. Trillanes good riddance as he is about to leave the hallowed halls of the Senate at the end of June of this year, we will instead wish him luck as he faces another prospect of being placed behind bars again,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said yesterday.

Panelo noted that the senator has been peddling wrong information and defaming the President and members of his family.

“The self-confessed black propagandist turns against his master, even as his victims look forward to seeing the Senate, or better yet the government, without the cantankerously obnoxious coup plotter,” he said.

“Despite the repudiation of his oft-repeated prediction that the President would lose his popularity as he unleashed a slew of false, malicious and seditious narratives during the last three years against PRRD, who after being made the central issue of the mid-term elections, has gloriously emerged triumphant again,” Panelo said, using Duterte’s initials.

He said the election victory of candidates endorsed by the President has vindicated the latter against Trillanes’ accusations.

“Mr. Antonio Trillanes continues to spew his poisonous invectives against the Chief Executive, who remains standing as the nation’s most beloved and trusted leader,” he said.

Panelo said Trillanes should first address serious allegations pointing to him as “the mastermind and in conspiracy with certain political leaders identified with the opposition of the unlawful plot to topple the Duterte administration.”

When Peter Joemel Advincula, alias Bikoy” surfaced, Panelo noted Trillanes’ praising the videos.

He said those behind the five-part video had intended to incite sedition against the Duterte administration.

He said Trillanes was at first “arrogantly wishing that he was part of such a felony, and then suddenly after being ratted as the creator of the sinister plot pronounces that he knows nothing about the same.”

Trillanes’ action is “reminiscent of his act of staging a military rebellion and immediately surrendering without even firing a single shot after he saw the government forces were set to pulverize him and his fellow mutineers,” Panelo said.

“He deviously released this black propaganda a week before the presidential elections, almost identical to the time frame of the release of the recent videos of Bikoy before the midterm national elections,” he said.

“Mr. Trillanes’ greater service to the nation is his mandatory exit from the Senate where he distinguished himself as a destroyer of reputations of people, including causing the self-extinction of a gentleman military officer whom he disrespected and humiliated before the nation,” the spokesman said.

But some senators, including Senate President Vicente Sotto III, think investigating “Bikoy’s” allegations would be a waste of time and resources.

Sotto earlier revealed Bikoy sought his audience in 2016 and presented to him supposed documents linking the previous administration to drug trade.

The Senate president said he had drafted a measure raising the penalty for perjury, from one to six months to reclusion temporal plus higher fines. Reclusion temporal is imprisonment from 12 years and one day to 20 years. 

He told radio dwIZ a stiffer fine for perjury would make liars in court think twice.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said Bikoy should be given an acting award for being able to lie with a straight face.

“When I saw him being interviewed, I realized he acted well even if what he was saying had no basis,” he said in Filipino.

He said members of Congress who want an investigation should first verify the information being peddled by Advincula.

Meanwhile, Advincula was released from police custody at around 9 a.m. yesterday after posting P24,000  bail for different estafa charges.

The release order was signed by Judge Joannes Asis of the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 40.

But despite the release order, Advincula chose to remain a “visitor” at the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group facilities until around 1 p.m.

He left Camp Crame with his family without answering questions from reporters.

PNP spokesman PCol. Bernard Banac said that Advincula did not submit a formal request for protection, despite claiming previously there was a threat to his life.

If Advincula does want protection, Banac said it should still be processed and approved by the Police Security and Protection Group.

Advincula was brought to the PNP General Hospital on Friday after his blood pressure supposedly shot up.

This came a day after he recanted his accusations against Duterte and his family and sought their forgiveness. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Romina Cabrera