President Rodrigo Duterte claimed on Friday, June 22, that the mother of outgoing Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, Estelita, and the alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles had something to do in the supposed anomalous purchase of substandard Kevlar helmets for the military in 1998.
“Remember ‘yung Kevlar? It’s a helmet na matigas na hindi matamaan ng — kung bala hindi masyado maka-penetrate. That’s Kevlar. Ang nag-deliver noon ang nanay ni Trillanes pati si Napoles. ‘Yan ang totoo diyan (Remember that Kevlar? It’s a helmet that is durable which cannot be easily penetrated by a bullet. That’s Kevlar. The ones that delivered it were the mother of Trillanes and Napoles. That is the truth),” Duterte said in his speech in Davao City.
The President also alleged that the senators’ parents were involved in graft and corruption at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA).
“If there was something wrong, if there was money there, kila Trillanes ‘yon, hindi sa amin. Ang number one na graft and corruption diyan noon sa PMA, ‘yung tatay niya pati ‘yung nanay niya (that is Trillanes’s money, not ours. The number one in graft and corruption in the PMA was his father and mother),” the President said.
To recall, it was in 2001 when Napoles and her husband, Jaime, were charged with graft and malversation of public funds in connection with the alleged anomalous purchase of 500 Kevlar helmets worth P3.8-million.
The President also earlier accused Trillanes’ mother of having business transactions with the Philippine Navy (PN) while the lawmaker and his late father were still serving in the military, which the senator had denied. The senator earlier slammed the President for dragging his mother who is suffering from Advanced Parkinson’s Disease in their political row.
Reacting to Duterte’s latest remarks against his mother, Trillanes said, “Wagas magsinungaling si Duterte kasi natatandaan pa ng mga tao na ang mga substandard na Kevlar helmets na ‘yan ay isa sa mga issues na inireklamo namin nung Oakwood Incident (Duterte is a pure liar because the public can still recall that the purchase of those substandard Kevlar helmets was one of the issues we raised during the Oakwood incident).”
“Kung may kinalaman ang mga magulang ko d’yan, dapat nun pa lang, nilabas na ni GMA ‘yan at ginamit laban sa’kin (If my parents had anything to do with that, [former President] Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should have released it at that time and used it against me),” he added.
Trillanes reiterated that his father retired in 1988 and died in 1999, while the senator entered the PMA in 1991 and graduated in 1995.
His 85-year-old mother, on the other hand, stopped doing business before he went to the PMA.
“Regardless, ayon kay Duterte, mahigit isang taon na iniimbestigahan ng iba’t ibang ahensya ng gobyerno ang Nanay ko, pero ni isang dokumento ay wala syang mailabas para maiugnay sa kahit na anong iligal na transaksyon (according to Duterte, different agencies of the government have been investigating my mother for more than a year already, but not one document showing my mother’s supposed involvement in any illegal transactions has been released),” he stressed.
In November 2018, Trillanes said he would “voluntarily” walk into any detention facility, even in Davao City, if Duterte could prove his claims against his mother.