Fresh allegations could surface when former senator Antonio Trillanes IV takes the stand against Vice President Sara Duterte, with the longtime critic promising disclosures he believes will sway public opinion against her continued tenure.
Speaking to ABS-CBN News on Saturday, Trillanes indicated his upcoming account would expand on testimony he gave to the House Committee on Justice back in April rather than replace it.
“My testimony will be similar to what I’ve already said during the April hearing, but I will add to it and I think some of the details will shock our kababayan and help them make the decision that Sara should no longer stay as Vice President,” he said.
The former senator is one of at least 25 individuals the prosecution intends to call to substantiate the Articles of Impeachment. Those articles allege graft, corruption, bribery, and a purported plot to assassinate President Ferdinand Marcos, a former Duterte ally.
Trillanes’ earlier remarks before the House panel centered on financial records. He asserted that Duterte and her spouse, Manases Carpio, held joint accounts totaling more than P111 million as of April 2016, and tied those holdings to dealings he described as involving individuals linked to the drug trade.
Carpio pushed back by lodging a perjury complaint, branding the claims as “downright false, malicious, perjurious, defamatory and pure black propaganda.”
A separate dispute over legislative priorities also emerged Saturday. Rep. Jude Acidre, who chairs the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education, took issue with the new Senate leadership’s move to establish a Blue Ribbon subcommittee examining flood control projects. He warned the body could pull public focus away from the impeachment proceedings and rehash ground already being covered elsewhere.
The subcommittee, set to be led by Senator Rodante Marcoleta, would carry forward the chamber’s probe into suspected anomalies in government flood control spending.
Acidre argued that the appropriate venue for the flood control matter is already handling it.
“The process is already at the Ombudsman, which is the proper forum…I’m not saying that we should escape accountability, but we allow the proper forum to take over the process of exacting accountability,” he said.
He also pressed on why the Senate would launch such an effort now, contending that the public’s attention plainly lies elsewhere.
