Lawyer: Trillanes may be behind Madriaga

Lawyer Salvador Paolo Panelo Jr. on Tuesday suggested that detained witness Ramil Madriaga’s allegations against Vice President Sara Duterte may have been influenced by former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, saying his affidavit appeared to echo the ex-lawmaker’s longstanding accusations against the Duterte family.

The affidavit submitted by Madriaga was included in the impeachment complaints filed against Duterte in the House of Representatives, where the lawmakers cited the document as part of their allegations against the Vice President, according to Panelo.

Madriaga had submitted the affidavit to the Office of the Ombudsman, in which he claimed to have delivered large sums of money to several individuals allegedly on Duterte’s instructions.

Duterte has denied this and recently filed a perjury complaint against Madriaga before prosecutors in Taguig City, accusing him of falsely portraying himself as her “bagman” who supposedly handled drug money during the 2022 election campaign.

Panelo said the contents of Madriaga’s sworn statement closely hewed to allegations that Trillanes had repeatedly raised against Duterte and her family.

“It’s obvious who’s behind this. Kasi (because) the Madriaga affidavit contains a compilation of former senator Trillanes’s greatest hits against the Dutertes,” said Panelo in a television interview on Tuesday.