Trillanes stops word war with Sara Duterte: I don’t have time

Opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Wednesday put the brakes on the word war he started with Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte after he said President Rodrigo Duterte had tapped his daughter to run for president in 2022.

Sara earlier in the day took to the social media to tell Trillanes that he should leave her alone otherwise she would make sure the outspoken Duterte critic and his allies would have to spend a billion "just to make (her) insignificant."

“Hindi ko na lang siguro papatulan ‘yan. I don’t have time for that,” Trillanes told reporters.

Trillanes claimed on Tuesday Duterte may push Sara to attempt to succeed him if other options for perpetuating power—declaring nationwide martial law or a revolutionary government and Charter change—failed.

Sara urged Trillanes to leave her alone “or else you and your friends will spend more than a billion in the 2022 presidential elections just to make me insignificant.”

“President Duterte imagines you will be shot, on the other hand, I will make sure you are alive and in pain,” Sara added, referring to her father’s statement last week that Trillanes might just see himself shot someday due to his "arrogance" and "tough" behavior.

Trillanes stood by his claim that Duterte had plans of perpetuating himself in power to elude possible prosecution in relation to his controversial war on drugs and alleged ill gotten wealth once the chief executive loses his immunity from suit by the end of his term in June 2022.

“Nilalatag ko lang ‘to as a matter of fact na ito ‘yung plano nila,” Trillanes said.

The senator said it was Duterte himself who made the decision for the Davao City mayor to run for senator in 2019 and then gun for the presidency in 2022 if necessary.

“I believe that decision was made for her by Duterte as a final option,” Trillanes said.

Should she decide to seek the presidency, Trillanes said Sara would have to go against his father’s political allies.

Trillanes mentioned Senator Manny Pacquiao, 2010 presidential aspirant and Senator Richard Gordon, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, and former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

“Sila silang magkakampi, sila sila ang magbabanggaan dito,” Trillanes said.

Trillanes is on his last term that will end in 2019. —NB, GMA News