OPPOSITION Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said he is not cowed by Senator Richard Gordon’s threat to file an ethics complaint against him after they engaged in a heated argument during Thursday’s Blue Ribbon committee hearing on the shipment of shabu worth P6.4 billion that was smuggled through Customs in May.
“Go ahead. I am not scared. I’m not afraid of President Duterte, so why should I be scared by him?” Trillanes said in Filipino.
Trillanes, a staunch critic of the President, said Gordon was wasting his time because he will not be cowed.
“He will scare me? Just do it. Let us just wait what the result would be,” Trillanes said Thursday night, experssing confidence that Gordon’s ethics complaint would not get the support of their colleagues.
“He will be lucky if he gets three or four to sign in his complaint. If he believes that he can get a majority of the signatures, then he has lost touch with the pulse of the senators, “ Trillanes said.
argument with Senator Antonio Trillanes IV. Ey Acasio
He added that many senators are disgruntled with the way Gordon was handling the case.
Trillanes said he did nothing unethical during the last hearing when he got Gordon’s ire, and footage of the session would show it was Gordon, chairman of the Blue Ribbon committee, who flared up.
The clash began when Trillanes asked why the President’s son, Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and presidential son-in-law Mans Carpio had not been summoned to the hearing, when Customs broker Mark Taguba had linked them to bribery at the Bureau of Customs.
He said the vice mayor and Carpio were being treated like sacred cows.
At the hearing, Gordon asked Taguba for details on the Jan. 16, 2017 meeting with a contact identified only as “Jack,” who was supposed to be Vice Mayor Duterte’s “handler.”
When Gordon warned Taguba not to lie, Trillanes said he was being badgered.
“Are you accusing the chair or Senator [Vicente] Sotto [III] of badgering the witnesses?” Gordon shot back.
“You’re so fond of making general statements. If you want to make general statements you better prove it. This is the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines. This is not a cockpit of chismis [gossip],” he added.
Gordon then angrily declared Trillanes out of order, and banged his gavel to suspend the session.
Gordon later said he took offense at Trillanes’ remark that the committee was becoming one that absolved the accused of wrongdoing.
He then told Sotto that he would file an ethics complaint against Trillanes.
Gordon then refused to let Trillanes speak, turning off his microphone at one point.
“I will not answer you. You are out of order,” banging his gavel again.
Sotto then moved to suspend the session for a few minutes and tried to calm the senators down.
Later, Trillanes accused Gordon of trying to draw attention away from the President’s son and his son-in-law with his threat to file an ethics complaint.