Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Thursday filed an ethics complaint against Senator Richard Gordon over what he claimed as unparliamentary acts, language or conducts which amount to “disorderly behavior” violative of the Rules of the Senate and other laws.
In a 27-page complaint, Trillanes also told the Senate Ethics committee, chaired by Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, that Gordon should also be held liable for violation of the Revised Penal Code, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees and the Lawyer’s Code of Professional Responsibility.
He said Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, should be meted appropriate sanctions and penalties commensurate to the gravity of his offenses.
Trillanes based his complaint on the alleged malicious utterances made by Gordon last Aug. 31 during the hearing into the P6.4-billion shabu smuggling being conducted by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee which latter chairs.
While trying to make his point to support his motion to invite President Duterte’s eldest son Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and son-law lawyer Manases Carpio, Trillanes said Gordon rudely interrupted him.
Trillanes has accused the two members of the President’s family as behind the so-called Davao Group, which allegedly facilitates the release of shipment at the Bureau of Customs in exchange for huge bribes. The two appeared in the senate hearing and denied involvement in any smuggling activity.
Gordon accused Trillanes of having acted “like an accuser, prosecutor and judge all rolled into one” during the hearing.
Trillanes also complained that Gordon insulted him when he was accused of turning the Senate into a “cockpit of tsismis” and of being talkative without knowing (the thing).
“Thereafter, respondent unilaterally declared, on his own and without the required motion, that the complainant is “out of order” and proceeded to “suspend” the session,” said Trillanes in his complaint.
He said that such words coming from a senator when addressed to a colleague, clearly constitutes oral defamation or slander.
“The words and/or language used by respondent Sen. Gordon, are in the nature of offensive or improper language and/or imputations, which can properly be declared as unparliamentary,” Trillanes said.
“Worse, when respondent was not able to get complainant to back down and succumb to his malicious designs through his threats and intimidation, respondent arbitrarily and whimsically declared complainant to be out-of-order and then declared a suspension of the proceedings.”
The opposition senator also accused Gordon of malicious utterance in the hearing last October 3, 2016 of the Senate committee on public order.
He accused Gordon, a rabid supporter of the President, of the “uncanny habit of shooting from the hips” first and accusing his colleagues of all sorts of things before giving them a chance to explain their side.
He specifically cited an encounter with detained Sen. Leila De Lima whom Gordon then accused of allowing Edgar Matobato of leaving the Session Hall during a hearing.
Matobato had testified that the President created the so-called Davao Death Squad which he used to get back at suspected criminals, political opponents and personal enemies by having them killed.
He said Gordon could not control his “blabber mouth,” particularly when he is excited or upset, endlessly making endless comments and self-serving “praise releases” to himself, so that almost all of the time of the committee was spent on his endless monologues.
Earlier, Gordon filed an ethics complaint against Trillanes last September 4 for the latter’s “comite de absuelto” remark during the same hearing.