After the Philippine leader warned him that he would get shoot someday because of his arrogance, opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Sunday, June 10, fired back at President Rodrigo Duterte, daring the latter to have him shoot.
“Go ahead, Mr. Duterte, order somebody to shoot me and, I assure you, it would lead to your end,” the senator said in response to the President’s recent remarks against him, describing the senator as always trying to act “tough and threatening “and thinking “he’s better than he is.”
Trillanes, one of the staunchest critics of the Duterte administration, stressed that during his entire public life, he has stood up and fought against “the crooked, the corrupt, the oppressors and abuser of power like Duterte,” adding that he has never bullied the helpless and innocent.
“Now, as to his threat that somebody would shoot me someday, only Duterte would want me dead because it irks him that somebody dared to stand toe to toe with him,” he said.
In a speech during the oath taking of the newly-elected village officials in Cebu City on Thursday night, June 7, the President said Trillanes “feels confident” as he was part of the government forces.
“He feels confident because he’s from the Armed Forces, the Navy. But who would believe him? He likes to fight a lot. He was part of the Magdalo before and was pardoned by [Former President Benigno “Noynoy Aquino III] Aquino. Now, look what happened. He’s always calling for a fight,” Duterte said.
“He believes that he’s the only tough one around because nobody fought him back. But there will come a day that someone will shoot him because he’s arrogant,” he added.
The Chief Executive made this statement after Labor Undersecretary Jacinto Paras claimed that Trillanes, who lead the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny and the 2007 Manila Peninsula coup d’état against the Arroyo administration, threatened the President on the sidelines of a Senate hearing in May.
Paras believed Trilannes’s threat was related to the graft and sedition complaints he lodged against the senator in November.
Trillanes, however, denied all the allegations against him, saying that Paras has “zero-credibility of a cellphone thief,” referring to an incident where Paras was accused by Akbayan party-list Representative Tom Villarin of stealing his phone during a public hearing at the House of Representatives on March 20.
[READ: DOLE’s Jing Paras accused of theft for allegedly stealing phone]