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Friday, September 8, 2017
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MANILA – Davao City vice mayor Paolo Duterte on Thursday appeared before the Senate after an invitation from the blue ribbon committee to its hearing on the P6.4-billion drug shipment from China.
The eldest son of President Rodrigo Duterte said he attended the session “as a gesture of respect to the Senate as a whole.”
Paolo Duterte and brother-in-law lawyer Manases Carpio have not been directly implicated in the drug shipment but were mentioned as belonging to an influential group that receives bribes from smugglers operating in Manila and elsewhere.
They denied any wrongdoing. The President urged them to attend the televised hearing, denying insinuations of corruption against them by opposition senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
“I am formally appearing once and for all. I now have the time to deny any and all baseless allegations thrown against me,” Paolo Duterte said in his opening statement.
“My presence here is for the Filipino people and to my fellow Davaoeños, to whom I serve. I am very sorry … but I cannot answer allegations based on hearsay,” he added.
The young Duterte was allegedly behind a certain “Davao Group” supposedly involved in smuggling. His name was allegedly dropped by fixers to let shipments with alerts pass through.
“A senator once said that we are a family of murderers and I am untouchable. Allow me to quote a message from a colleague of mine in the city council of Davao: ‘Every dog has his day. The law of karma will operate especially to those with evil intent,’” he said.
The allegations would likely further infuriate the tough-talking President Duterte, who said over the weekend that Trillanes had been trying to undermine him and his family with baseless allegations.
President Duterte called Trillanes a “political ISIS” – using another acronym referring to the terrorist organization Islamic State – who aims to destroy him but could not offer any shred of evidence.
Carpio, husband of Sara Duterte, the Davao City mayor, said he and his brother-in-law “have been publicly crucified based on rumors and gossips.”
At the height of the Senate inquiry, Trillanes accused Paolo Duterte of being a member of the Chinese triad, an organized crime group, citing intelligence information he said was provided by a foreign government.
The young Duterte, Trillanes alleged, has a tattoo on his back that is the mark of a triad gang member.
Paolo Duterte acknowledged he has a tattoo during questionings by Trillanes but refused to show it, citing his right to privacy.
Trillanes also said he has information that the two have separate bank accounts with huge cash deposits. The two refused to sign waivers for Trillanes to investigate the alleged bank accounts. (ABS-CBN News and The Associated Press)
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