(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday called out the usual personalities in his speech before the Filipino community in Thailand, as he wrapped up his 3-day visit in the neighboring Asian country.
“Wag kayo maniwala dyan. Basura ni..kilala ba ninyo si Trillanes?” Duterte asked the thousands of Filipinos who had trooped to a hotel in Bangkok to see the popular President.
Upon hearing Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s name, the crowd, who at one point sang the President a happy birthday after finding out his birthday was coming up, booed.
Apart from being one of Duterte’s vocal critics, Trillanes is also a member of the Magdalo group, which has filed an impeachment complaint against the popular President on five grounds: his alleged culpable violation of the Constitution, acts of bribery, betrayal of public trust, graft and corruption, and other high crimes.
The Magdalo group particularly noted what they said was the “state policy of killing drug offenders,” the “more than 140,000” killed in Davao when Duterte was mayor, and Duterte’s alleged employment of “more than 11,000 ghost employees” there at that time.
They also emphasized Duterte’s supposed bank accounts, which they claimed had transactions amounting to more than P2.2 billion.
“Ano ginawa ng…niya? Diba nagrebelde? Dyan sa Makati, nagwara wara ng mga baril. Nagmartsa doon, inagaw ang Peninsula na hotel, nagbarricade dun. Pagdating ng pulis, ang mga duwag na…nagsurrender agad. Tapos naging senador, akala mo nagmamalinis,” Duterte said in his expletives-laden impromptu speech.
He then accused Trillanes of collecting money from big businessmen.
“Iyan ang abugado na di abugado. May retainer iyan. Malalaking negosyo, natatakot sa kanya. Napakaduwag nyan, matakot kayo. Pagdating ng pulis surrender agad. Akala ko ba makipagpatayan ka,” Duterte said, in reference to the so-called Oakwood mutiny in 2003.
During the mutiny, more than 300 soldiers who called themselves Bagong Katipuneros–Trillanes included—seized the Oakwood Premier Ayala Center in Makati to protest the alleged corruption of the administration of then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The group also noted that they saw signs that Arroyo was going to declare martial law.
The mutiny ended after 18 hours after the group failed to muster enough support from the public and the military.
The President then went on to criticize Senator Leila de Lima, whom he called a “thick-skinned person (makapal ang mukha).”
De Lima, who has been detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center since her arrest in February, faces several drug cases in Branches 204, 205 and 206 of the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court.
The cases are in connection with her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trading in the New Bilibid Prison when she was justice secretary.
“Ang tragedy is siya secretary of justice, hawak niya presuhan, siya mismo went into trafficking. No bail yan. Kaya sige sulat, sige mura sa akin. Ayaw pang admitihan. Nag free advertisement na nga siya sa sarili niya. Sabi niya di yan ako...,” Duterte said.
“Alam mo, hinahanap ko talaga, wala akong nakita sa Pilipinas, babae, na napakakapal ang mukha. Siya lang. Lapitan mo yan, laslasan mo ng blade, di tatalab,” he added, to cheers from the crowd.
As for Vice President Leni Robredo, Duterte reiterated that she wanted him out of Malacanang.
Duterte started publicly saying that Robredo was one of his “enemies” after she was seen dishing out criticisms of his drug war in a video shown in an event organized by a nongovernment organization in Vienna, Austria.
The event was held on the sidelines of a main United Nations event.
In the six-minute video, Robredo said that people were “becoming hopeless and helpless” as bodies began piling up in the war against drugs.
She also described what she said was a “palit-ulo scheme” that sees relatives of a drug suspect arrested in his or her place if he or she was not around.
The PNP has denied Robredo’s version of the scheme.
