Ex-coup plotter and former senator Antonio Trillanes appears to be getting his just desserts by way of the many cases being lodged against him by several people whose affidavits that more or less point to him as the alleged recruiter of fake witnesses, who are then made by him to issue statements destroying Trillanes’ bête noire, President Duterte.

From Edgar Matobato to Arthur Lascañas, and Peter Joemel “Bikoy” Advincula and now to one Guillerma Lalic Barrido, the flow of their testimonies runs along the same lines that are more or less identified with the modus operandi engaged by Trillanes and his camp that generally includes bishops, priests, activist nuns and some ex-police and ex-military men.

With a new affidavit-complaint lodged against the former senator, who appears to have zero chance of winning another term as senator in 2022, he has another migraine headache as the Philippine National Police (PNP) Criminal Investigation and Detention Group recently filed a kidnapping with serious illegal detention complaint against Trillanes, along with three others, who, not surprisingly, include a priest, a nun and Jude Sabio, who stood as lawyer for the former senator’s fake witnesses who had testified before the Senate against Duterte — Matobato and ex-cop Lascañas, with his second to the latest TV serial “star” named “Bikoy” who later recanted.

Trillanes has been slapped with the violation of Article 267 of the Revised Penal Code over the alleged kidnapping and illegal detention of Barrido in a convent.

Barrido’s claim of having been kidnapped and illegally detained is almost a carbon copy of then Justice secretary, now detained, Sen. Leila de Lima’s “star witness” Benhur Luy against the three opposition senators who were the political foes of her yellow President.

But then, De Lima and Trillanes are like two peas in a pod.

A denial of the claims of Barrido was quickly issued by Trillanes, with him claiming the usual theme of Duterte’s moves to persecute him, portraying himself as the victim instead of the perpetrator and, worse, the persecutor.

Perhaps the former senator deserves such a persecutorial reputation, considering the fact that when he and the yellows were in power and in position, he, a tainted yellow, went after his and the yellow foes, destroying their reputations based on fake charges, but never presenting any evidence to back up his claims against those whom he had persecuted. All Trillanes really was doing was to destroy the electoral chances of his yellow President’s foes.

With him and the yellows out of power and position, Trillanes is now in the same spot he was in the past, where he placed his foes. His problem today, however, is the fact that he has lost all credibility, which then gives his accusers a thin mantle of credibility — as far as getting some to believe in the claims they make, especially as the charges carry the same theme found in all of the past witnesses of Trillanes, all of whom had issued perjured testimonies.

The former senator naturally debunked his accusers’ claims, saying that he had never even met her and gave the same type of denial he always makes, whenever the finger points to him.

In his denial, Trillanes slammed the PNP’s complaint against him, calling it a clear case of “harassment and persecution of Duterte against his critics.”

Trillanes’ style is always to deny, but strangely enough, even as he claims not to ever have met or talked to his accusers whoever they may be, he always says to have earlier gathered information on his accusers.

As expected, Trillanes was quoted as saying that he has never met Barrido, but he has information that the woman had earlier volunteered to testify against the President.

Said Trillanes: “The information I received was that she was supposedly a voluntary witness against Duterte but her story has many holes, and she allegedly asked for money in exchange for her testimony, so she was rejected as a witness. Then, when she wasn’t given money, she switched sides.”

But apparently, Trillanes’ latest accuser is not a new accuser as she had reportedly leveled her accusations against him in the past.

The report said that in 2017, Barrido sought assistance from then Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, claiming that she had received death threats from Trillanes’ camp. She claimed that Trillanes and his camp offered her P1 million to implicate the President in the killings carried out by the Davao Death Squad, and to support testimonies of Matobato and Lascañas, both of whom perjured themselves and, after falsely testifying, the fake witnesses were disappeared from view, apparently aided by the then senator and his camp in leaving the country.

Moral of the story: Time for just desserts for Trillanes for having done unto others whose time it is to be doing unto him.