Trillanes ‘filing more cases’ vs Duterte, Go

Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV is considering to file more complaints against former President Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go over alleged irregularities committed during the previous administration.

According to Trillanes, among these complaints include one related to the alleged anomaly in the frigate acquisition project of the Philippine Navy.

The former lawmaker made the remarks two days after filing his second plunder complaint against Duterte for allegedly using his position as mayor and later as president to award contracts worth P6.6 billion to “unqualified” companies owned by Go and his family.

Go, his father Deciderio Lim Go, and his half-brother Alfredo Armero Go were also named as Duterte’s co-respondents in the case filed by Trillanes at the Department of Justice on Friday.

Duterte and the others were also accused of graft and corruption and culpable violation of the Constitution.

Go has been a close aide of Duterte since the former president was a congressman and later as mayor of Davao City. He served as special assistant to the president from 2016 to 2018. He won his Senate seat in the 2019 midterm polls.

“This [plunder] case is just the beginning. We are filing more cases, not because the election is near. I’ve been doing this even before. We have been standing against them since their first year in office,” Trillanes said in a forum on Sunday.

Navy frigate deal

“There are other complaints being lined up against them. I may not be the only one to file the complaints because now people realize that they can already come forward because Duterte and his sidekick Bong Go’s reign has ended,” he added.

Trillanes, a former Navy officer, was one of the critics of the controversial frigate acquisition project.

“We will file the complaint at the appropriate time, maybe within the next few weeks. We’re just completing some documents, but it’s almost ready,” he said, adding that apart from Duterte and Go, there are other personalities involved in the alleged anomaly, including “their partners in the Department of [National] Defense.”

He noted that the frigate acquisition project began during the administration of the late former President Benigno Aquino III and continued during the Duterte administration.

Based on reports, controversy marred the project in late 2017 after then Navy chief Vice Adm. Ronald Joseph Mercado was sacked for pushing for a certain brand of combat management systems (CMS) for the frigates that was chosen by the Navy’s technical working group.

Malacañang reportedly intervened in the selection of the CMS and in favor of a Korean supplier, prompting the Senate and House of Representatives to investigate the matter.

“We bought the ships, a contractor won the bid with specific terms of reference, but when Duterte took office, they changed it to substandard specifications,” Trillanes claimed, adding that Navy officials were forced to accept the new terms.

“When the flag officer in command refused, Duterte removed him and appointed someone who would sign,” he said, adding that because of this maneuver, those behind it earned more than a billion pesos.

Admission

During his State of the Nation Address (Sona) in 2019, Duterte said the frigate controversy helped Go to land a seat in the Senate because he acted on a complaint of the supplier as part of their efforts to address allegations of malfeasance against public officials and the bureaucracy.

But Trillanes then said that the role of Malacañang helped the South Korean supplier to “profit billions of pesos more by forcing the Philippine Navy to accept several substandard equipment, such as the [CMS], that were different from the list specified in the original contract.”

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“And when the Navy Flag Officer in Command Admiral Mercado insisted that the contract be implemented faithfully, Duterte had him fired unceremoniously,” he said in a 2019 statement.

He stressed then that Duterte’s admission of his and Bong Go’s involvement in the frigate scam is actually an admission of the crime of plunder.

“It was like the Philippines bought a Mercedez Benz but its engine was replaced with that of an owner-type jeep… they saved money because they replaced it with substandard equipment. But it turned out to be double expenses for the government since the Navy could not use it because it’s substandard,” Trillanes said on Sunday.

Asked why the plunder case was filed only on Friday, Trillanes said the “timing is perfect” since Duterte is no longer in power and the Duterte-Marcos alliance has already fallen apart.

No politics

“During the Duterte administration, it’s impossible for case like that to prosper, that’s one. If the Duterte-Marcos alliance remained solid, our assumption is most probably this case would also not prosper because they’re still allies. But since their alliance has disintegrated recently, that’s another sign,” he noted.

“But the most significant sign was when Sen. [Leila] De Lima was completely acquitted. Because we know that Duterte did everything to prevent Sen. De Lima from posting bail or having the cases dismissed. But the fact that they did not succeed and justice prevailed, it means they no longer have control over the [judiciary],” he added.

Trillanes also stressed that his complaint is not politically motivated since he is not seeking a national position in the coming elections.

The Inquirer tried to reach Go for comment on the additional complaints Trillanes was planning to file against him.