Trillanes denies visiting Duterte, conducting welfare check

Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV denied Friday that he visited former President Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court detention center in The Hague, Netherlands to conduct a welfare check.

“Hindi po ako bumisita kay Duterte at napakadali ho niyang malaman ‘yan kasi naidiscuss po sa amin ng ICC ang mga polisiya sa ICC detention center,” Trillanes said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview.

(I didn’t visit Duterte and it’s easy to know that since the policy in the ICC detention center was discussed to us.)

Trillanes added that the former Philippine leader has access to telephone 24/7 so he could have informed his family if indeed it happened.

Earlier, Senator Robin Padilla filed a resolution urging a Senate probe into the alleged designation of Trillanes to conduct a welfare check on the former Philippine leader in The Hague.

Based on proposed Senate Resolution No. 141, Padilla claimed that there have been discussions that Trillanes was designated by the Philippine government to conduct the welfare check on Duterte.

The senator said that it has to be clarified if such was officially sanctioned by any branch or agency of the government, and if so, under what authority and mandate was such designation given.

Vice President Sara Duterte had raised concern regarding the welfare check that was supposedly conducted by the Philippine Embassy in The Hague to her father while in detention.

For its part, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said that the welfare check was in line with the embassy’s functions under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and relevant Philippine laws to protect the welfare of all Filipinos. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News