Hopeless destabilizer Antonio Trillanes IV is trying to rekindle his long-dead political career by recycling long-dead cases against prominent personalities.

The practice of drumming up recall is a worn-out trick where the objective is not to make anything of the legal case but to merely keep up the noise at a high decibel to benefit the accuser.

Trillanes may be considered a ringmaster in the art of rabble rousing as many remember his leading the nearly one-year effort to demonize former Vice President Jojo Binay using the Senate as the venue.

He is now using former President Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Bong Go as a jumping board in an otherwise futile effort to return to the Senate through a plunder case against both involving the P16-billion Philippine Navy Frigate Acquisition Project in 2016.

Trillanes is flogging a dead horse in filing his series of plunder cases since the issues, particularly that of the frigates and related systems acquisition, had long been resolved.

The two Jose Rizal-class frigates built by renowned shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) have improved the capabilities of the Philippine Navy’s Offshore Combat Force.

A Senate investigation did not find the Korean transactions anomalous. The deal was also cleared by the Department of National Defense.

In his 2019 State of the Nation Address (SoNA), Duterte said that he ordered Go, then Special Assistant to the President, to talk to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana after the Korean contractor of the vessels complained that there was no request for delivery of the frigates despite the contract having been awarded during the term of the late President Noynoy Aquino.

Trillanes gained notoriety for being the backchannel agent of Aquino who contributed to the worsening of the Chinese occupation in the West Philippine Sea.

He claimed the Philippine Navy was forced to accept substandard equipment, such as the combat management system, that was different from that specified in the original contract.

The two frigates were armed with a variety of missiles and guns that were compatible with the specifications of the Korean builder.

The acquisition of the two frigates was the first step to providing the Philippine Navy with modern and capable vessels in the effort to create a credible defense capability against external threats.

When Duterte took the reins of government in 2016, the project had already been awarded during the term of the previous defense secretary, Voltaire Gazmin.

On 18 August 2016, the notice of award was issued to HHI by Lorenzana, the defense secretary under Duterte, and the conforme was signed on 13 September 2016.

A month later, Lorenzana sent the Notice of Award, and shortly after he was confirmed by the Commission on Appointments, Lorenzana signed the contract with HHI. A notice to proceed was issued to HHI on 13 December of the same year.

After that, the project was stalled at the Critical Design Review stage after the Philippine Navy and HHI raised concerns about the combat management system (CMS) of the frigates.

The CMS is a computer system that is “the brain of a naval combat vessel.”

HHI, citing a provision in the contract, claimed the “sole right” to choose the CMS manufacturer and selected fellow South Korean company Hanwha Systems as the supplier.

Former Philippine Navy flag-officer-in-command Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph Mercado said the PN preferred the Tacticos system made by Thales of the Netherlands.

The frigates acquisition package was started on 7 June 2013 when Gazmin signed Acquisition Decision Memorandum 2013 with an approved budget of P18 billion.

On 16 June 2016, HHI was declared the winning bidder and was issued the Notice of Award.

The deal was sealed and perfected under Aquino, and Duterte had no choice but to implement it.

Since the country was in a difficult situation as a result of the maritime conflict with China, Duterte wanted the vessels delivered immediately.

The pathetic Trillanes now wants the public to again labor under his peddled deceptions in his false belief that early politicking would win him the 2025 vote.