An Antonio Trillanes who once staged a coup attempt and served as a backdoor negotiator of the Aquino regime in China is back with his usual braggadocio. He went to town with a wad of papers purporting to be evidence against Sen. Bong Go and former President Rodrigo Duterte. He asserted it was about plunder. Well, I had heard this before and just like many of his allegations from plunder to twisting facts about drugs and unsubstantiated claims of extrajudicial killings and Davao Death Squads, I do not think he has any new myth to show.
It’s election time. The midterm elections are not that far away. He tried to ride on the issue of the International Criminal Court by preempting even the ICC on supposed forthcoming warrants of arrest for PRRD, Sen. Bato dela Rosa and VP Inday Sara. It was a shotgun speculation. He managed to get some news mileage, including interviews by bloggers who still believe his stories. Apparently, that did not wash so here he comes with another attempt.
The show aimed at reviving his dead political ambition will not help. The last time he did this, his “tokayo” ex-justice Antonio Carpio drafted him to be a 1Sambayan senatorial bet. He lost miserably. I do not think Martin Romualdez’s Lakas-CMD will get a political sinker, for it could pull everybody down to the losers’ pit.
Remember Peter Joemel Advincula, alias “Bikoy,” the hooded character in a production of the “Ang Totoong Narcolist” video? He alleged that Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV was behind the black propaganda that linked the entire family of FPRRD, including his daughter, who was just about 10 years old, to drugs. Included on the list was Bong Go.
Bikoy claimed the video was done to discredit Duterte and give 1Sambayan bets a chance to win in the midterm election. Actually, this political episode in the life of Trillanes is still available on the internet. Just Google “Ang Totoong Narcolist” and you will have an entire library of how and why the tale was created.
Trillanes was as consumed as Leila de Lima with linking FPRRD to the issue of extrajudicial killings. As members of the Senate then, the duo tried to implicate the President in what De Lima claimed were thousands of EJK victims in Davao City. Trillanes presented two witnesses who claimed to be members of the Davao Death Squad. It looked like the duo did not memorize their script well — the Senate charged them with perjury which prompted them to escape and take refuge in unknown countries.
As in any election season in the Philippines, there is really nothing new in Trillanes’ act. My barber simply calls it “in aid of election.” In fact, Trillanes is not alone. The only difference is that he delves mostly in fantasy.