Duterte wants to subpoena Trillanes’s mother over alleged transactions with PH Navy

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the General Assembly of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines held at the Manila Hotel in Manila on February 26, 2019. SIMEON CELI/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

President Rodrigo Duterte said he will issue a subpoena against the mother of opposition Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV over her alleged business transactions with the Philippine Navy.

“Sumobra ka (You went overboard)… We will initiate an investigation kagaya mo (like you) and I will subpoena your mother sa ayaw mo’t sa hindi (whether you like it or not),” Duterte said during the 2019 general assembly of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) on Tuesday, February 26.

“Baka sabihin mong walang power ano (You may say we have no power) — there is. We also have the contempt power but we have to go to court,” he added.

Duterte made the accusation against Estelita Trillanes in September 2018 during his televised one-on-one interview with Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, saying that the senator’s mother has supply transactions with the Philippine Navy when the lawmaker and his deceased father, Antonio Trillanes, Sr., were still serving in the military.

Trillanes, however, belied the President’s claim and slammed Duterte for dragging his 84-year-old mother who is suffering from Advanced Parkinson’s Disease in their political row.

“Kung meron siyang problema sa akin, stick with me dahil kaya ko ‘to. Pero ‘yung ida-drag mo ‘yung nanay ko, personalan ‘yan. Hindi ‘yan gawain ng mga tunay na lalaki (If he has a problem with me, stick with me because I can do this. But drag my mother [into our fight]? That is too personal. That is not what a real man does),” he earlier said.

In November, the Chief Executive said the government was already looking into the supposed dealings of his staunch critic’s parent.

Trillanes had welcomed this, saying that he will “voluntarily” walk into any detention facility, even in Davao City, if Duterte could prove his claims against the senator’s mother.