'Malicious fabrications': Sara Duterte camp slams Trillanes' claims

The camp of Vice President Sara Duterte rejected Saturday the accusations made by former senator Antonio Trillanes IV that she and her husband allegedly received hundreds of millions of pesos from China through their organizations.

Duterte's spokesperson Salvador Paolo Panelo Jr. said Trillanes has been repeatedly lying about the vice president and her family for years.

"Since 2016, former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has been peddling the same exhausted lies regarding Extrajudicial Killings (EJKs), fabricated drug links, imaginary unexplained wealth, baseless corruption allegations, and fictional China connections against the Duterte family," Panelo said in a statement.

The statement comes a day after Trillanes claimed in a press conference that Duterte and her husband, Manases Carpio, received P150 million and P319 million, respectively.

He claimed that the vice president received the money from the Chinese embassy through her foundation, while Carpio received his through a corporation.

Panelo used Peter Joemel Advincula or "Bikoy" as an example. Advincula accused former president Rodrigo Duterte and several members of his family of being part of an illicit drug trade, but later withdrew his claims, accusing Trillanes of being behind the plot.

The Duterte spokesperson also cited lawyer Jude Sabio, one of first personalities to bring former president Rodrigo Duterte's crimes against humanity case to the International Criminal Court (ICC) but later withdraw his case. The elder Duterte's trial before the ICC is scheduled to begin in November.

"(Trillanes') malicious fabrications have been exposed at every turn by the very pawns he used to rely on… Because of these repeated, unmasked deceptions, the Filipino people have rightfully and overwhelmingly rejected Trillanes in every subsequent attempt to get elected back into public office," Panelo said.

Panalo criticized the Marcos administration for giving a platform to Trillanes' claims.

He also slammed Trillanes for not stating these claims in the Senate impeachment court, where he could have been under oath. The vice president's defense team also was not able to question him.

"This sudden retreat is absolute proof that his claims cannot survive real legal scrutiny, and are nothing but black propaganda, which is par for the course for a professional character assassin," Panelo said.

Trillanes was withdrawn Thursday as a witness for the prosecution in the Senate impeachment trial of Duterte.

The former senator said he requested House prosecutors to withdraw him as he would conduct a press conference wherein he would reveal everything that he would have disclosed in the trial.

Trillanes also claimed that he was unwelcome in the impeachment trial, but the impeachment court spokesperson Regie Tongol dismissed this.

He likewise claimed that Duterte failed to declare millions in time deposits in her Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) from 2007 to 2010 when she was Davao City vice mayor. Further, Trillanes alleged that she also did not declare millions of dollars worth of life insurance in her 2010 SALN.

"The Vice President would gladly sue him for these endless fabrications, but we have already witnessed how those who actively peddle malicious lies against her and her family are openly protected and propped up by this administration," he added. — VDV, GMA News