BBC anchor confronts Trillanes with Duterte’s popularity, Palace says

A member of the foreign media has observed how Senator Antonio Trillanes IV's views against President Rodrigo Duterte could be "inharmonious" with the public pulse, Malacañang said on Thursday.

Trillanes had accused Duterte of being behind the downgrading of the criminal charges against the cops linked to the death of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa when BBC HARDtalk’s presenter Stephen Sackur made the rebuttal, according to presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella.

“Maybe it’s best to summarize Senator Trillanes’ interview with the BBC, when he said that the senator seems to be out of tune and not reflective of the times,” Abella told reporters during a briefing in Malacañang on Thursday.

Abella was referring to the question Sackur asked Trillanes in an interview on June 21, if he thought his negative comments against Duterte were “out of tune with ordinary Filipino opinion.”

Sackur pointed out that Duterte was still enjoying a high approval rating despite his controversial war on drugs, at 75 percent.

Trillanes responded that the number had dropped since he was elected and that the figure Sackur cited was at least three months old.

Sackur interrupted Trillanes and said that if Western politicians got a 75 percent approval rating, it would be the happiest day of their life.

Trillanes countered that the “bulk of Filipino public” was unaware of what’s happening on the ground.

Duterte in March reiterated his support for Marcos and his men from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Region 8 even after a joint Senate committee report saying that the death of Espinosa was premeditated. The Senate adopted the committee report a few days later. —NB/KVD, GMA News