Who’s crazy? Palace, Trillanes swap charges

MANILA, Philippines — The word war between the administration and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV continued yesterday as Malacañang said the opposition senator might have been referring to himself when he called President Duterte “crazy.”  

Last week, Trillanes accused Duterte of overturning the country’s justice system after government prosecutors charged him with grave threats over his alleged confrontation with Labor Undersecretary Jacinto Paras in the Senate last year. 

Trillanes then called Duterte “baliw” (crazy) for supposedly ordering his allies to file cases against him. 

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said Trillanes’ attack against Duterte was a “distorted” argument. 

“Senator Trillanes’ latest attack against the President, even calling him baliw because criminal charges have been filed against him for his transgressions, is a distorted if not fallacious argumentation. When he described (President Duterte) as baliw, he must have been referring to himself and correctly so,” Panelo said in a statement.  

Panelo said Duterte’s 81 percent approval rating in a recent Pulse Asia poll should serve as a timely reminder to the “rabid” political opposition that their assaults against the President and his administration “are falling flat on their faces.”

“Senator Trillanes’ rants go against the sentiments of 81 percent of Filipinos approving the President’s performance and the 76 percent trusting him as our Chief Executive. He pompously claims he is not afraid of facing the criminal suits against him but his partisan vociferous rantings show that he is in mortal fear of going back to jail,” he added. 

Panelo said the “political noise” is expected to escalate further as the midterm elections near. 

“The handwriting on the wall as graphically shown by survey figures is glaring. Our people are fed up with the destructive politicking dished out by the opposition and critics and detractors. Filipinos want to maintain the visible and continuing genuine change,” he said. 

He challenged the opposition to engage the administration in a healthy debate of programs and platforms that would benefit Filipinos. – With Edith Regalado