DAVAO CITY – Presidential son Paolo Duterte has filed two new libel cases against Sen. Antonio Trillanes over the latter’s statements aired in two media outlets in connection with the alleged PHP6.4 billion shabu smuggling.
In a press conference here Wednesday, Lawyer Rainier Madrid said the new libel cases were filed before the City Prosecution Office here on Wednesday afternoon. He said the cases stemmed from Trillanes' statements over DZMM and CNN Philippines.
Madrid said the senator accused the presidential son as the perpetrator of shabu shipment and druglord during a DZMM program hosted by Anthony Taberna and Gerry Baja on June 6, and repeated the same allegation and on June 14 on a program hosted by Pinky Webb on CNN.
Madrid said his law office has already asked the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to look into both incidents.
“Why CIDG? Because it has been empowered by law to exercise subpoena powers,” he told reporters.
Madrid said it took CIDG over two months to investigate the matter, which involved questioning the journalists with whom Trillanes had made the serious allegations.
Based on the complaint, Trillanes was quoted as saying in the DZMM program that Paolo and his friends were responsible in smuggling of drugs in the country. The senator alleged that the principal actors in the shipment were connected to Paolo, even accusing the latter of being the "handler" of the drug shipment.
Trillanes repeated the same accusation on Webb's CNN program.
The new cases against the senator brought to three the libel cases filed by the presidential son against The former. Another libel case was filed against the senator last year together with Paolo's brother-in-law, lawyer Manases Carpio, husband of Mayor Sara Duterte.
In December last year, Paolo and Carpio filed a civil case against Trillanes for dragging their names into the smuggling issue. The duo appeared before a Senate inquiry where they strongly denied the senator's accusations.
The two filed the case before the Office of the Clerk of Court on December 27 and was raffled to the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 15 under the sala of Judge Mario Duaves here.
The PHP6.4-billion shabu shipment from China, which slipped through the BOC, was later seized in Valenzuela City. (Lilian C. Mellejor/PNA)
