Photo File from THEPHILBIZNEWS
A true blue soldier he is, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV detects an opportunity to maneuver (Art of War, Book VII) in the filing of libel charges against him by Presidential son, Paolo Duterte and brother-in-law, lawyer Manases Carpio.
Trillanes said that this is an opportune time for him to call Paolo Duterte as a “hostile witness” in a Senate drug smuggling inquiry.
A hostile witness is someone who is called to an investigation but refuses to tell the truth.
Trillanes noted that Paolo Duterte’s legal actions would enable him to pressure the resigned vice mayor of Davao City to open his bank accounts.
Duterte has filed libel charges against Trillanes for linking him to the smuggling into the Philippines of “shabu” (methamphetamine) worth P6.4 billion from China and for alleging that he and his brother-in-law, lawyer Manases Carpio, extorted money from ride-hailing companies.
Last year, in the Senate investigation Senator Trillanes called the young Duterte to the Senate inquiry into drug smuggling and compelled him to show the dragon tattoo on his back but Paolo Duterte refused to show to the senators invoking his right to privacy.
Having a dragon tattoo on one’s back is associated with a member of a triad, a Chinese-organized crime group.
Thus, Trillanes was compelled to dare Duterte to show the tattoo in order to stop the issue that he is a member of traid once and for all and if Paolo Duterte does not have a dragon tattoo the Senator offered to resign, but former vice mayor of Davao City refused, saying it was an invasion of his privacy.
The Senate investigation on the alleged involvement of Paolo Duterte and Brother in law Manases Carpio, stemmed from the confession of customs fixer, Mark Taguba.
Taguba implicated Duterte and Carpio in the smuggling of the shabu through the Port of Manila with the connivance of Bureau of Customs officials.
Trillanes also challenged the Dutertes to allow the Anti-Money Laundering Council and the Office of the Ombudsman to open their bank accounts to disprove his accusations of unexplained wealth. In an apparent retaliation to Senator Trillanes, President Rodrigo Duterte said that Trillanes had an existing bank accounts in Singapore with allegedly contained millions. But it turned out that Duterte said the bank accounts were all fake and just invented by the President.
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