DAVAO CITY—President Rodrigo Duterte said Saturday night he would advise his son, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and his son-in-law, Manases Carpio, to appear before the Senate if they are invited to hearings on corruption at the Bureau of Customs.
Both members of his family were linked to corruption at the bureau by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who has urged the Senate Blue Ribbon committee headed by Senator Richard Gordon to summon them to a hearing.
But the President said their presence would not help Trillanes prove his case because they can always invoke their right to remain silent.
“My advice to Pulong [his son’s nickname]? Go there, if you’re there and he [Trillanes] questions you, just say, I will not answer you. I’m invoking my right to remain silent because since the election, before my father became president, you were already hitting us,” Duterte said in Filipino.
“My answer to you is, I will refuse to answer your questions because they will intend to incriminate me,” Duterte said.
Duterte pointed out Trillanes already assumed for the longest time that Paolo and Carpio are behind the so-called Davao group linked to BoC’s smuggling and “tara” or bribery system.
Calling Trillanes as idiot with an IQ rate of six, Duterte dared the senator to get his own evidence instead of relying on other people’s statements.
“So if you want evidence, Mr. Trililing, do not get it from the mouth of other people. Go somewhere else,” he said.
Duterte said Trillanes cannot punish a person or make any inference when a person invokes a constitutional right. Trillanes, he added, was just on fishing expedition.
Eariler, Carpio said Trillanes is a “desperate rumor-monger,” who happens to be a senator. Carpio said he had indeed visited Customs because he represents many clients who have transactions with the agency.
In a question-and-answer session with reporters Sunday night, Duterte said countless investigations that were meant to harass the administration has degraded Senate procedures into “something cheap.”
“Why bother asking a lawyer and asking a plain citizen, or vice mayor for that matter, whom you’ve already assumed publicly were those behind Davao group?” the President said.
“For what purpose? For harassment. The problem is, the processes of the Senate have been degraded. They look cheap now,” he added.
Duterte also urged the public not to take threats of contempt charges from the Senate.
“This is my advice to the people of the Philippines. Don’t believe the Senate’s contempt threats. It’s nothing. Once you’re called, just ask help from me as President, and I will readily help you. I will send lawyers. I have to say that I represent the person cited to appear, and my answer to him is, ‘Shut up.’ Done.”
He said Trillanes has cheapened the image of the Senate as an oppressor.
Duterte said that Trillanes should have spilled his beans early on if he really had the evidence against the presidential son.
“You intend to incriminate me… I am not a criminal—you are making me one,” he added. With PNA
