Trillanes mulls cases vs Rep. Duterte after questioning reported hefty allocation for district

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 24) — Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV is studying filing cases against Rep. Paolo Duterte, whom he said could be held responsible for possibly anomalous projects in the first district of Davao City.

Trillanes told CNN Philippines in a message on Wednesday that he is looking into suing the Davao congressman for alleged plunder and violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

This was after he called on the Commission on Audit to verify reports that Duterte’s district supposedly received a total of ₱51 billion in congressional allocations during the last three years that his father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, was in power.

READ: Trillanes calls for COA special audit of alleged ₱51-B allocation for Paolo Duterte's district

Trillanes questioned where the “scandalous” amount of money went, saying state auditors should scrutinize the projects implemented by the local government.

Speaking at a politics podcast, the former senator said documents he obtained from the budget department showed that there were several flood control projects in the district.

“Ang tanong dito, saan mo nilagay?” Trillanes said, referring to the hefty allocation, during his guesting at journalist Christian Esguerra's "Facts First" podcast.

“Andoon, makikita mo puro mga flood control projects, mga drainage,” he continued. “Kasi ito daw, according sa mga insiders sa ganyang kalakaran, yan daw mga flood control projects, yan yung may pinakamalaking pinagkakakitaan kasi bubuksan lang daw kaunti yung kalye, then isasara na…Eh ang laki ng kinikita dyan.”

[Translation: The question here is where did you put the money? There, you can see that there were a lot of flood control and drainage projects. According to insiders, projects like these yield the highest amount of profit because you’ll just open the roads, and then close them again. You get a lot of money from that.]

Asked why the previous Congress did not flag the alleged billions of pesos in allocations, Trillanes said lawmakers could have missed it due to “voluminous” documents.

“More often than not, the individual legislator...ang tututukan mo yung project na mapupunta sa 'yo. Hindi ka normally manghihimasok sa iba eh,” he also said.

“Sa Senate naman, sa sobrang lawak ng budget, kasi may iba-ibang focus eh, hindi naman tinututukan magkano nakuha ni congressman ganito, kasi malawak yan,” Trillanes added.

[Translation: More often than not, the individual legislators are focused on their own projects. You don’t normally interfere with the business of others...In the Senate, the budget covers so many areas and senators no longer scrutinize how much a certain congressman received.]