SolGen Calida preps charges vs. Trillanes for coddling DDS 'hitmen'

Published February 27, 2017 5:37pm

Updated February 27, 2017 6:54pm

By VIRGIL LOPEZ, GMA News

Solicitor General Jose Calida is bent on filing charges against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV for allegedly coddling members of the Davao Death Squad who have linked President Rodrigo Duterte to extrajudicial killings in Davao City.

At a press conference on Monday, Calida pointed to Trillanes' legal accountability for allegedly giving protection to retired policeman Arturo Lascañas and confessed hitman Edgar Matobato.

"He's a person of interest. Why he is coddling this self-confessed criminal? Di ba as senator he should be for the administration of justice?" the solicitor general said.

"That person (Lascañas) confessed to have killed his two brothers. Even this Matobato, why is he coddling, hiding and providing security for this confessed criminal? Is this the job of the senator?"

Calida, however, said he will not be filing the charges soon. "Give me more time and I will have the proper case to be filed against him," he said.

Lascañas denied before the inquiry of the Senate justice committee last October Matobato's claims about the existence of the vigilante group and Duterte's role in its alleged killing spree when he was mayor of Davao City.

But the retired policemen made a complete turnaround last week as he admitted that the DDS existed and that Duterte ordered its members to kill certain personalities.

Lascañas said he decided to tell everything about Duterte's supposed involvement in vigilante killings because he was stricken by his conscience.

Calida played down the testimony of Lascañas, whom he described as a "perjurer."

Trillanes should see a shrink

Meanwhile, Calida also said questioned the mental fitness of Trillanes for claiming that Duterte is out to kill him.

"Sumosobra na kasi itong si Senator Trillanes. He's accusing the President of plotting to kill him. I don't know where he gets his wild ideas. Perhaps he should see a shrink," the solicitor general said in a press conference. 

Trillanes has accused Duterte of several things, from amassing billions of pesos in ill-gotten wealth, abetting extrajudicial killings in the government's war on drugs to persecuting political foes.

Recently, the senator said in a television interview that no less than Duterte hatched a plan to assassinate him, citing Lascañas' statement.

Trillanes said road accident was among the methods being looked at in the kill plot.  —KBK, GMA News

- See more at: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/601235/news/nation/solgen-calida-preps-charges-vs-trillanes-for-coddling-dds-hitmen#sthash.8Sg0nnCv.dpuf