PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, September 10, asked lawyer Jude Sabio to tell the truth about former senator Antonio Trillanes’s supposed involvement in the release of videos linking the presidential family to illegal drugs.
“You know frankly I have not met nor talked to the guy (Sabio). What prompted him for a change of heart? I really don’t know. I will be speculating,” the President said in an interview with Palace reporters.
“So unless magkausap kami at matanong ko, bakit, ano ba talaga ang totoo (So unless we’re able to talk and I’ll have the chance to talk to him, I’ll ask him why and what’s the truth)? And [if] he says he wants to testify, sabihin ko lang (I’ll tell him), you just tell the truth. If the truth favors Trillanes and all, fine,” he added.
Sabio, the lawyer who filed a communication against Duterte’s drug war before the International Criminal Court, earlier expressed openness to testifying against Trillanes in the sedition complaint against the former senator and opposition figures before the Department of Justice.
Sabio, in an interview with ABS-CBN News, believed that Trillanes has “deep” involvement in the “Ang Totoong Narco-list” videos that linked the Duterte family to illegal drugs.
Sabio claimed that Trillanes tried to recruit him in April this year to be the legal counsel of Peter Joemel Advincula alias Bikoy who was the hooded man in the series of videos against the Dutertes.
He also admitted that he had a falling out with Trillanes over the issue of allegedly unpaid P700,000 billing for his services to self-confessed Davao Death Squad member and whistleblower Edgar Matobato.
Trillanes refuted Sabio’s claim and denied any involvement with Advincula. ( Ruth Abbey Gita/SunStar Philippines)