A SON of President Rodrigo R. Duterte appeared before a Senate hearing on Thursday, Sept. 7, to face insinuations by an opposition senator of being part of a so-called triad on illegal drugs.

At the seventh public hearing of the Senate blue ribbon committee on the P6.4-billion shabu shipment from China last May, as well as on the systematic bribery at the Bureau of Customs in connection with the shipment of drugs, opposition Senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV boldly accused Davao City Vice-Mayor Paolo Z. Duterte of being a member of an international triad whose operations, however, the senator has yet to locate for the record.

TATTOO
The proof, Mr. Trillanes said in the course of his questioning Mr. Duterte, lies in a “dragon”-like tattoo on Mr. Duterte’s back. According to Mr. Trillanes, the tattoo bears “sacred digits,” which can be decoded by the “US-DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency).”

Mr. Duterte, who appeared at Thursday’s hearing following an invitation by the committee headed by Senator Richard J. Gordon, said he had a tattoo, but declined to describe it, invoking his right to privacy.

“No way,” he said in response to Mr. Trillanes’s prodding that Mr. Duterte have his tattoo photographed so the image can be sent to the US Drug Enforcement Agency for decoding secret digits.

Mr. Trillanes further claimed that during President Duterte’s term as Davao Mayor, the city became a “transhipment point” for cocaine.

“Kaya yung mga pinakita kong instances sa Davao, bakit may mga ganung shipment na nadidiscover — hindi ito nahuhuli, nadidiscover lang ng port laborers dun na may mga cocaine? Bakit nangyari ito, so many instances sa Davao City Port, na sabi ng Mayor na galit na galit siya sa drug lords?” the senator said. (That’s why I showed instances in Davao where shipments of cocaine were discovered — not apprehended but discovered by port laborers. Why is this happening…in Davao where the [former] Mayor kept saying he was angry at drug lords?)

These shipments show “how fake (is) the war on drugs in Davao City,” Mr. Trillanes said.

Also invited to the Senate hearing was presidential son-in-law Manases R. Carpio, husband of incumbent Davao Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.

Mr. Trillanes also claimed before the two that they maintained bank accounts amounting, as of 2015, to P104.3 million and P121 million, respectively.

Messrs. Duterte and Carpio both disputed Mr. Trillanes’s claims regarding these bank accounts, but refused to accommodate Mr. Trillanes’s prodding that they sign a waiver on said deposits. Mr. Duterte, for his part, wondered aloud to the committee if he should answer Mr. Trillanes’s “irrelevant questions.”

At some point, Mr. Gordon asked Mr. Trillanes to “refrain from editorials.” The two senators previously had a row over Mr. Trillanes’s insistence to invite Messrs. Duterte and Carpio to the Senate inquiry after they had been linked to this controversy.

‘GAY’
Interviewed later by reporters, Mr. Trillanes “Marami tayong planong gawin (We intend to do much more).”

He added: “Puwede natin ma-compel na pabuksan yan eventually by having cases filed dito kay Vice-Mayor Paolo Duterte for hidden wealth and ill-gotten wealth. Dahil vice-mayor siya. Public official siya, hindi niya na-re-report sa SALN.” (We can compel that the bank accounts be opened, by having cases filed against Vice-Mayor Paolo Duterte for hidden wealth and ill-gotten wealth. Because he’s a vice-mayor. He is a public official, who has not reported his assets in his SALN [Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth].)

Also interviewed by reporters, Mr. Duterte’s lawyer, Rainier L. Madrid, said Mr. Trillanes “hates the President because he wasn’t chosen as his Vice-President, (which is) understandable.”

Mr. Madrid also said that Mr. Duterte was willing to show his tattoo but he advised against it.

When asked if he had seen Mr. Duterte’s tattoo, Mr. Madrid said, “I haven’t seen it because I am not gay. Siguro if Senator Trillanes said na may pagka-gay siya (Perhaps if Senator Trillanes said he was quite gay), I would have changed my mind.”

Mr. Faeldon, meanwhile, was a no-show at the hearing, but sent a letter to the committee, saying he was willing to have his bank accounts investigated. Senator Panfilo M. Lacson had earlier accused Mr. Faeldon in a detailed privileged speech of profiting from the corruption at the Bureau of Customs.

Mr. Gordon said he was inclined to “declaring him (Mr. Faeldon) in contempt or have the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) arrest him” if he refuses to (attend) the next hearing. — Mario M. Banzon with a report by Reuters

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