Former congressman and now Labor department undersecretary Jacinto Paras filed grave threat charges against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV before the Pasay City Prosecutors Office on Wednesday.
In a six-page complaint, Paras said Trillanes threatened him during a Senate hearing they both attended last week. He filed a case on violation of Article 282 of the Revised Penal Code on Grave Threats against the senator.
Paras’ complaint stemmed from the incident which happened at the Senate hearing on the Oversight Committee on Overseas Foreign Workers last May 29.
“Ang lakas ng loob mo. Hindi magtatagal ang amo mo. Matatapos din ’yan. Yayariin kita. Mersenaryo ka. Yayariin kita,” Paras quoted Trillanes as saying to him during that hearing.
Lawyers Lorenzo Gadon and Elligio Mallari accompanied Paras in filing the complaint.
Trillanes dismissed the complaint filed by Paras and said he will face the allegation against him.
“Kapag hiningan tayo ng counter-affidavit e di magsa-submit tayo kaya nga sabi ko haharapin ko ‘yan sa korte,” he said.
“There is no truth in that complaint. He has the zero-credibility of a cellphone thief,” added Trillanes, apparently referring to the theft case filed Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin against Paras.
Trillanes said that footages of the closed circuit television at the Senate session will prove what really transpired between him and Paras.
Trillanes said he had already written Senate President Vicente Sotto III on June 6, where he requested a copy of the CCTV footage during the plenary session on May 29 when he had an encounter with Paras.
“Said video will be used in my response to the case that was recently filed against me by Usec Jacinto ‘Jing’ Paras,” the senator said in his letter, referring to the grave threats complaint Paras filed against him.
Trillanes also denied Paras' allegations that the senator went straight to the latter upon seeing him and confronted him.
“Siya ang makikipagkamay, ni-reject ko. Sabi ko ang lakas ng loob mo, kinakasuhan mo ako tapos makikipag-kamay ka. So ni-reject ko yung kamay niya,” said Trillanes.
“Makikita n’yo yan sa CCTV, inabot niya ‘yung kamay niya, ni-reject ko 'yan. Dito makikita na sinungaling itong tao na ito,” he added.
In November 2017, a group of lawyers led by Paras and Glenn Chong filed charges of inciting sedition and proposing to commit coup d’ etat against Trillanes.
The group cited as basis for its complaint the statement of Trillanes during his speech that the soldiers might shoot Duterte to fulfill his wish that he be shot if the allegations he had hidden wealth was proven.
“Now, Mr. Duterte said he can be shot dead if there is P40 million in his accounts. He said that in front of the soldiers,” stated the complaint quoting Trillanes.
The lawyers’ group accused Trillanes of committing “conspiracy or proposal to commit coup d’ etat and inciting sedition” for encouraging the military to go up against the President and that he should be indicted under Articles 136 and 142 of the Revised Penal Code.
In his privilege speech on Oct. 3, Trillanes accused Duterte of having bank accounts with transactions amounting to over P2 billion from September 2006 to December 2015.
But Manuelito Luna, the complainants’ legal counsel, said the speeches by Trillanes”•including his privilege speech in the Senate”•were not protected by immunity from suits.
“The Oct. 3 privilege speech against the President and the government is not protected speech under the Speech or Debate Clause,” Luna said.
The complaint cited as another basis Trillanes’ speech during the launch of the Tindig Pilipinas movement on Oct. 14 involving Duterte’s alleged bank deposits.
He claimed that one of the alleged accounts had deposits of P50 million at least 13 times.
Trilllanes also claimed that in another bank account, there were at least 20 deposits of P40 million to P50 million each.
He claimed that Duterte bought in just one-day insurance for his four children worth P80 million.
Trillanes also said that he has evidence consisting of bank transaction records from the Anti-Money Laundering Council, which denied such a claim.
Trillanes said Paras and his co-lawyers’ plan to file sedition raps against him is “absurd.”
Trillanes claimed that he made no direct appeal for the military to kill Duterte, but merely said troops would probably have to use their M-60 machine guns against the President because of the volume of evidence proving the latter’s ill-gotten wealth.