Trillanes a 'spent force,' attacking 'innocent' people —Mans Carpio

Lawyer Manases Carpio, the husband of Vice President Sara Duterte, hit back at former senator Antonio Trillanes IV for filing drug smuggling and graft complaints against him and others, saying that the ex-lawmaker only did so for political purposes. 

Trillanes on Wednesday filed the complaints against Carpio, Davao Representative Paolo Duterte, and former Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, among others, over a P6.4 billion shabu shipment that was seized in 2017.

In response, Carpio said in a private post on Facebook that he was “appalled” that the former senator was reviving the issue. 

“It is appalling that former Senator Trillanes is trying to revive his accusations against me, Cong Paulo Duterte and what he calls the ‘Davao group’ for involvement in illegal drugs when a Senate inquiry he himself took part in found no reason to recommend our indictment,” Carpio said. 

The Vice President’s husband, who called Trillanes a “spent force,” also brought up that the latter is facing libel charges for “maligning innocent people.”

“It is understandable that a spent force like him would like to boost his political stock by grabbing the headlines, but it is deplorable that he would do so at the expense of innocent people,” Carpio said. 

“Mr. Trillanes should perhaps learn a lesson or two from the fact that up to now he is still facing libel charges brought about by his reckless maligning of innocent people,” he added.

In Trillanes’ complaints, Carpio, Paolo Duterte, and Faeldon, along with seven others were accused of violation of Section 4 in relation to Section 26(a) of Republic Act (RA) 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 as amended by RA 10640; as well as RA 3019 or The Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

The former senator said his camp gathered documentary and testimonial evidence from a Senate inquiry in 2017.

“Ganito ‘yung naging sistema, ang pinaka drug lord dito ay si Charlie Tan na ka-partner ito ni Michael Yang. Magkapareho sila ng triad, tapos ang naging protektor ay sila Pulong Duterte at Mans Carpio,” Trillanes said.

(Their system was the main drug lord was a certain Charlie Tan who was a partner of Michael Yang. They were in the same triad and their protector was Pulong Duterte and Mans Carpio.)

“Tapos ang mga naging facilitators naman nito na naipasok ito at naipuslit palabas ng Customs ay sila Faeldon… at iba na namention doon sa case,” he added.  

(And the facilitators that allowed the drugs to go out of Customs were Faeldon… and others mentioned in the complaint.)

Paolo Duterte, the eldest son of former President Rodrigo Duterte, welcomed the complaint, saying that it would allow them to address the allegations before the proper legal channels and not on social media.—LDF, GMA Integrated News