Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on Friday expressed her support to her brother, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, and husband, lawyer Manases Carpio, in their decision to file civil case “for damages” against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
“They are within their rights. I feel na what Trillanes did to them is too much, especially that my husband is a private individual. He is not a public official. He is not a public property. I support my husband and my brother in the case that they filed and I hope it will prosper,” Duterte-Carpio said in Visayan dialect during a press briefing in Davao City.
“Maayo nga gibuhatan nila ug lakang nga mag-file ug case kay Trillanes [Good thing they made a move to file a case against Trillanes],” she added.
Paolo and Carpio have filed a civil suit against Trillanes “for damages” on Wednesday. Lawyer Kaiser Kate Narciso, clerk of court of Branch 15 of the Regional Trial Court in the city, confirmed that the complaint had been raffled off her branch of court.
The complaint was filed months before the senator dragged down the names of Paolo and Carpio to the P6.4-billion worth of shabu shipment from China that slipped through the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in May.
Both Paolo and Carpio have denied Trillanes’ accusation during the Senate probe on the “shabu” issue.
Trillanes, meanwhile, shrugged off the civil cased filed against him, saying that it was “nothing but another harassment suit because our corrupt and coopted justice system (has) become the refuge of the Duterte scoundrels.”
The senator warned the two complainants that he would go after them.
Sara, meanwhile, said that her husband told her about the filing of the suit before he left their house, but did not seek advice from her beforehand.
She also added that it was right for her husband to “harass” Trillanes, responding to the senator’s claim that the case was another “harassment suit.”
“Gi-harass man pud niya akong bana, so I guess correct lang pud na i-harass pud siya akoang bana. That’s why I feel kanang maayo about his lakang and his actions because I have been telling him katong mga panghitabo na—he should not keep quiet [He also harassed my husband, so I guess it was just correct for my husband to harass him too. That’s why I feel good about his step and his actions because I have been telling him that what happened—he should not keep quiet],” Duterte-Carpio said in a mix of English and Visayan.
“Kung awayun ka, dapat mangaway pud ka. Dili ka muhilom because dili man siya ang nauna. Dili man akong bana ang nauna. Siya (Trillanes) man and nauna [If they quarrel with you, you should fight back. You don’t keep quiet because it was not him who started this. It was not my husband who started this. It was Trillanes],” she added.
The Davao City Mayor was also calm by the senator’s threatening remark to go after her family, which Trillanes described as a “murderous and corrupt clan.”
“He better be sure also that forever naa pud siya sa power. Because kung ako nalang ang nasa power, dayon wala na siyay power, ipa-energize nato siya sa Davao Light [He better be sure also that he will be forever in power. Because if I’m the only one left in power, and he doesn’t have power, we’ll have him energized at Davao Light],” the mayor jested.