Former president Rodrigo Duterte’s claim that Malacañang is behind former senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s attack against him was merely a “hallucination,” Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said on Monday, Nov. 18.
(From left, first row) Former president Rodrigo Duterte attends the quad-committee hearing with former senator Leila de Lima, Fr. Flavie Villanueva, and ex-senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Nov. 13, 2024. (House of Representatives)
The official laughed off the former chief executive’s remark when asked about it during a chance interview at Malacañan Palace.
“Ano? Ganun na lang--ano? (What? I’ll leave it at that--what?),” he asked.
“Alam mo mahirap na pumatol sa ganyan dahil hallucination na ‘yan. Hallucination (You know, it’s hard to take that bait because it’s just hallucination. Hallucination),” Bersamin said, when prompted by reporters to clarify his reaction.
In a phone call to his former legal adviser, Salvador Panelo, during a livestream, Duterte alleged that the Marcos administration was behind Trillanes’ recent claims that drug money was funneled into the Duterte family’s bank accounts.
He claimed that the former senator was “Malacañang-sponsored” because he won’t be able to act on his own for lack of funds.
Last Wednesday, Nov. 13, Duterte, Trillanes, and former senator Leila de Lima, whom the former president put in detention for nearly seven years for drug-related charges that have since been dismissed, faced the House quad committee hearing as resource persons.
The committee is looking into the Duterte administration’s bloody war on drugs campaign that purportedly killed thousands of mostly poor Filipinos.
Trillanes revived his earlier allegations that about P2.4 billion was deposited to Duterte’s and Vice President Sara Duterte’s bank accounts from 2011 to 2015. He also said that Duterte’s 2016 campaign donor, Sammy Uy, who was linked to the drug trade, deposited P120 million to these bank accounts.
This has angered the former president, and showed him grabbing the microphone to presumably throw it at the former senator. The hearing was briefly suspended and Duterte later on said he would sign the bank waiver the next day, Nov. 14, to belie Trillanes’ claims.
As of posting time, Duterte still hasn’t submitted a bank waiver.