Fariñas hits back at Trillanes: I pushed for approval of your amnesty

Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas on Thursday shot back on Sen. Antonio Trillanes, who criticized him over the possibility of filing an ethics complaint against Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano.

Trillanes, who is part of the Magdalo group, earlier said Fariñas “must either have disturbingly twisted morals or [was] very on something.”

In turn, the House majority leader reminded the former mutineer that he pushed for the proclamation that granted the latter and other soldiers amnesty during the term of then-President Benigno Aquino III.

Fariñas said this was the “only instance” he had “twisted morals.”

The proclamation, signed in 2010, benefitted soldiers involved in the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny, the 2006 Marine standoff, and the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege.

“The only instance of twisted morals that I committed was to sponsor and defend in the HOR the amnesty that Congress granted to them!” Fariñas told GMA News Online on Thursday afternoon.

The veteran lawmaker also scored Trillanes for having a “selective” moral compass.

“Ironically, he thinks he is our moral compass who has the authority to stage a failed coup and attack everyone he pleases,” he said. “He defends the rights of Rep. Alejano to file cases against the President, but does not grant me the same right to file a case against him for perjury or an ethics case.”

Fariñas also said: “On his comment that I was a poor lawyer, coming from him who does not know the law, I find it a compliment!”

Trillanes made the comment against Fariñas after the latter said he may  recommend an ethics complaint against Alejano, if he pushes through with his plan to file a “complaint” against President Rodrigo Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

Alejano is eyeing the said remedy after the House justice committee junked his impeachment complaint against the President.

While he sees the lawmaker’s moves as a “strategy” for a “propaganda” against the President, Fariñas noted that the final say on said ethics complaint will fall upon Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Duterte’s top ally in the House. — RSJ/BAP, GMA News