Philippine Senator Antonio Trillanes is a traitor through and through. His time in jail after he was found guilty of rebellion after he led the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny against former President Gloria Arroyo did not help change him into a better person at all. Being granted amnesty by former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III and winning a seat as a senator did not teach him a lesson in humility either. In fact, being allied with powerful people from the Liberal Party and holding a position of power himself emboldened Trillanes to continue his sociopathic tendencies. Yes, there are people like Trillanes who are just plain bad and instinctively seek to destroy others who get in their way. It is unfortunate that the rest of Philippine society has to suffer along the way in his pursuit of his agenda.
What is Trillanes’s agenda? His current agenda is to build enough case against current President Rodrigo Duterte and have him removed in any way possible – through impeachment or with the help of the International Criminal Court (ICC) or through “people power”. He’s tried every trick in the book to make it happen. He’s so desperate and have such a thick face that he doesn’t mind looking like an idiot while doing his deed.
Try to analyse what he is doing now. So he filed a plunder case against Duterte with the Office of the Ombudsman last year, but even after it was dismissed and the investigation terminated, Trillanes still goes on media blitzes and post statements on social media trying to keep the issue alive. Just look at what he posted on Twitter:
If what I have is nothing but garbage, then why are they panicking? And why can’t Mr. Duterte just accept my challenge for him to sign a waiver and if I am wrong in my allegations then I would resign immediately as Senator and voluntarily walk in any jail of his choice?
His latest statement proves that he doesn’t deserve to be a senator or be in any position in public service. First of all, promising to resign or walk into any jail if he is proven wrong is the oldest trick in the book especially for a traitor like Trillanes. He can always say he said it in jest just like what BS Aquino said when he promised to be run over by a train after he failed to deliver his promise to finish the LRT project in 2015.
Trillanes is not serving the people anymore, only himself and his masters. As a lawmaker, he should know that the burden of proof rests solely on the accuser, not the accused. He is conveniently ignoring this rule. If he has anything on Duterte, he should show it. It seems he tried to use the Office of the Ombudsman to “expose” Duterte’s bank accounts, but the Ombudsman was not willing to participate in his little witchhunt.
Trillanes is causing division in Philippine society by riling up the public using baseless accusations. In pursuing a case against Duterte using mob rule, he is encouraging anarchy or calling for people to throw the rule book out of the window. He wants to anger enough people to go out and rally against Duterte. He will only succeed if there are enough gullible people who will fall for his old tricks (he’s done this before with other public servants he had a beef with like former Vice President Jejomar Binay) that can fill up EDSA to form another people power revolt. That is very unlikely to happen because, one, more people think Trillanes is a joke than someone to be taken seriously and, two, “people power” revolts have finally gone out of fashion in the Philippines. We can thank social media for that. The public is now more informed and can easily debunk lies peddled by people like Trillanes.
What kind of society will the Philippines have if people like Trillanes have their way? If anyone can just throw baseless accusations against others, the Philippines will become more chaotic than it already is. While he may not be winning, Trillanes is still succeeding in convincing others who already have biased views against Duterte. Those who never liked Duterte and who already had preconceived notions about him from the very start do not need further convincing anyway. They’ll just swallow whatever Trillanes say hook, line and sinker. They are the kind of people who do not have foresight. They can’t put themselves in the position of the accused. They are the kind of people the rest of us should be worried about. Their irrational thinking can be disastrous for the country.
Trillanes doesn’t really care if he brings down the reputation of the country while he does his dirty deeds. He and his cohort, another ex- military, Congressman Gary Alejano did not think about the consequences of their actions when they filed the complaint against Duterte with the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes committed in the course of waging his war on drugs. In seeking help from the international community to remove Duterte, they are basically saying that the Philippines is already a failed state and that the local courts are useless. That’s not fair to the Filipinos who work in the country’s criminal justice system.
Trillanes and those who support him do not have faith that the local courts can do a better job in prosecuting Duterte. It’s not even consistent with their show of support for embattled Supreme Court Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno who is facing impeachment complaints of her own and has been accused of not filing her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) for years – a clear violation of the law for public servants. It seems Trillanes and other members of the opposition are willing to turn a blind eye to lawbreakers when it involves one of their own. The situation in the Philippines is so convoluted that it is sometimes hard to explain what is going on. Outsiders trying to figure it out are probably so confused. The behaviour of the Opposition is so irrational and screwed up.
People like Trillanes try to make it look like they are the good guys, but the truth is, they are the bad guys. The proof is in how he betrays his own compatriots by spreading false accusations against his enemies and seeking help from the international community using information that is not just biased and incomplete, but also something that foreigners would not easily comprehend. Thank goodness the international court follows procedures and are not easily duped.
The upside in this is at least when the ICC finally dismisses the case against Duterte, Trillanes will be humiliated before the international community as well. In betraying the country, Trillanes is also betraying himself.
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