by jariusbondoc | Oct 23, 2026 | Gotcha
Communist China mouths two contradictory lies. One, that it never aggresses its neighbors. Two, that it wins in the end. History disproves both lies.
In 1289 Yuan emperor Kublai Khan dispatched Meng Qi to the Malay capital of Java to demand homage. Rejecting foreign taxation, King Kertanegara cut off the envoy’s nose and ears, then sent him bleeding back to Dadu, now Beijing.
Furious, Kublai Khan ordered an invasion. Twenty thousand Han foot soldiers and 10,000 Mongol horsemen, equipped with gunpowder weapons and catapults, set sail on 1,000 ships. The armada landed in Java early 1293. Kertanegara had just been assassinated in a palace coup by rival Jayakatwang.
Prince Raden Wijaya, Kertanegara’s son-in-law and heir, met the invading commanders with an offer: he’d turn over royal maps and censuses with palace treasures if they helped him regain the throne. The invaders agreed. Their combined forces deposed the usurper.
Raden Wijaya sought permission to retrieve the homage from his settlement in Tarik timberland. He staged a sneak attack on the scattered Yuan troops. The invaders, unused to humid tropical jungles, were decimated. Fearful of being trapped in monsoon storms for another half-year, remnants staggered back to China.
About 18,000 Yuan soldiers died from combat, disease, and shipwrecks. Kublai Khan demoted the fallen generals and confiscated their estates. He died plotting a second invasion.
Kublai Khan twice attempted to conquer Japan. In 1274 his army of Mongols, Han, and Korean conscripts landed in Hakata Bay, now Fukuoka. Firing poisoned arrows and gunpowder bombs, they dominated the daylong battle. But the Kamakura Shogunate pushed them back by gusty dusk. That night a severe storm struck the fleet, destroying most ships and forcing survivors to limp back home.
Crushing the southern Song Dynasty in 1281, Kublai Khan amassed wealth for a second invasion. A thousand ships with 40,000 troops sailed from Korea, while more ships with 100,000 soldiers set out from southern China. Japanese fortifications prevented their safe rendezvous in Hakata Bay. For weeks the fleet was stranded in nearby islands.
In late August typhoon struck the densely-packed fleet. Tempest smashed the vessels into each other and onto the rocky shores. Eighty percent of the armada was destroyed, and tens of thousands of soldiers drowned. Stragglers were slain or enslaved by Japanese samurai. Kamikaze (divine winds) again saved the country.
Yuan rulers invaded Vietnam in 1258, 1285, and 1288. All were fiascos. General Tran Hung Dao thrice routed 500,000-strong enemy forces.
In 1979 China attacked anew. Vietnam, newly reunited after 30-year war against colonizers France and America, had struck the brutal Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge regime in neighboring Cambodia. Deng Xiaoping declared that “China needed to teach Vietnam a lesson.”
Up to 300,000 People’s Liberation Army troops poured into the northern border by surprise. China had not fought a battle since the 1950s Korean War. Vietnam’s two divisions were busy in Cambodia, so only local regional forces, border guards, and rural militias repelled the PLA. Around 26,000 Chinese were killed and tens of thousands more wounded. China’s stated goal to expel the Vietnamese from Cambodia failed. The PLA withdrew after a month.
In Manila last week Chinese ambassador Jing Quan boasted, “If we want to use force, we may easily win; but no, we will not use force; you know, we love peace.” He said that during a forum on China-Philippine ties amid maritime disputes.
President Bongbong Marcos took it as “a threat, very undiplomatic”. It wasn’t the first time Jing Quan mentioned possible military violence.
Filipinos love peace. They will not be pushed either. In Dec. 2025, 79 percent considered China the Philippines’ top threat.
China had a one-child policy in 1979-2015. Those born then are now 11 to 47 years old. Average age of PLA troops is 27; officers, around 35; majority are under 30 – all single offspring.
China must avoid violence in the West Philippine Sea. For every soldier that falls, three sets of seniors could lose a breadwinner: the parents, and the paternal and maternal grandparents. Jing Quan, 51, should think of that.
On Aug. 11th, 2025 a Chinese navy warship collided with a China coastguard gunboat that was water-cannoning a Philippine patrol near Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal. The menacers collided with each other. Two Chinese water-cannoneers were thrown overboard.
The Philippine vessel stopped to offer help in rescuing them. The Chinese ignored the gesture. Only on Aug. 5th, 2026 did China admit the loss of two coastguards: Yi Xinyu, 21, and Cheng Long, 25.
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by jariusbondoc | Oct 21, 2026 | Gotcha
Politicos think we’re all dumb. So they rob us repeatedly. Their favorite target: our PhilHealth.
Last August the executive proposed a measly P244 billion for our state health insurance in 2027. It was less than half of what the Universal Health Care Act (UHCA) requires.
This month the House of Reps slashed the P244 billion to only P74 billion. Congressmen transferred bulk of the stolen P170 billion to Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients.
MAIFIP is political health ayuda. To avail of it, we’re expected to suck up to legislators and their relatives in local posts. They issue “guarantee letters” for us to avail treatments in government hospitals.
Government hospitals run on taxes we pay. But by doling MAIFIP, politicos make us think they’re so kind so we should elect their dynasties over and over.
UHCA runs on our taxes too. Part of sin taxes on alcohol, tobacco and sugary drinks must go to PhilHealth. Also half of “social funds” that Pagcor and PCSO remit to Malacañang.
Those total around P541 billion. It’s to subsidize indigents, retirees and PWDs who can’t contribute to PhilHealth. It can cover annual doctors consultations, dental checkups, lab works, maintenance meds, hospitalizations, even dialysis.
Employees contribute to PhilHealth P500 to P5,000 a month depending on pay scale. As contributors they deserve their money’s worth of the above PhilHealth benefits.
But because politicos steal our money, PhilHealth must downscale benefits to both contributors and noncontributors. Instead of full PhilHealth coverage we must shell out 44.4 percent of yearly health bills – the highest in ASEAN.
In 2024 Malacañang took P60 billion from PhilHealth for use in flood controls and bridgeworks. Its lame excuse was that such projects are needed for health care because doctors, patients, ambulances traverse those infrastructure.
The Supreme Court ordered in 2025 the return of PhilHealth’s P60 billion. By then, politicos had divvied it up as public works kickbacks. To comply with SC’s ruling, Malacañang and Congress simply appropriated P60 billion. They stole our money and paid it back with our taxes.
PhilHealth was to get a paltry P54 billion from sin taxes that year. Claiming that PhilHealth already got its P60 billion back, Congress moved the P54 billion to still more flood controls.
People decried the plunder. Congress gave PhilHealth P130 billion in 2026. Still insufficient.
On Oct. 6, congressmen moved PhilHealth’s P170 billion for 2027 to MAIFIP and DPWH. News videos showed supermajority members crying for joy. Crocodiles shed tears after a full meal.
Aside from PhilHealth other agencies were robbed: DepEd, DOST, DOTr and government counterpart funding for foreign-assisted projects. Total loot: P180 billion – added to the DPWH allocations of supermajority congressmen.
As before, senators will uphold the House-approved budget. So our only recourse is a presidential veto. After all, Bongbong Marcos had chastised greedy politicos in his 2025 State of the Nation: “Mahiya naman kayo!”
But veto by BBM is iffy. The P180 billion went to his allies.
BBM’s son Majority leader Sandro Marcos got the biggest slice. DPWH’s engineering office in his Ilocos Norte 1st district initially was allotted P400 million. The House raised it more than ten times to P4.8 billion. In 2023-2025 Sandro already got P15.8 billion.
Second placer was Rep. Mikaela Suansing, House appropriations committee chairwoman. Her Nueva Ecija 1st district got P3.91 billion.
Third placer: Rep. Augustina Pancho, appropriations vice chairwoman, whose Bulacan 2nd district got P3.5 billion.
Fourth: Rep. Joseph Tan, also appropriations vice chairman, whose Isabela 4th district got P3.1 billion. Tan is brother-in-law of Speaker Bojie Dy’s son.
The P180-billion DPWH extra allocations are “discretionary,” “lumpsums.” “without project studies” – the three elements of pork barrels that SC outlawed in 2013. Politicos not only take us for fools. They also have no fear of God. The Good Book says in Psalms 37:28, “For the Lord loves justice and does not forsake His saints; they are preserved forever, but the offspring of the wicked shall be cut off.”
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by jariusbondoc | Oct 16, 2026 | Gotcha
Don’t just buy a pail to collect rainwater before the very strong El Niño. Be sure to cover it against egg-laying mosquitos. Or sprinkle some detergent. That way you’ll avoid spreading deadly dengue in your community.
Government will teach us to filter rainwater, President Bongbong Marcos says. Simplest is to cover gutters and downspouts with plastic or stainless-steel screens to catch leaves and twigs.
A screened bucket can also serve as first-flush diverter to a drum. It eliminates dust and bird droppings from initial roof runoff. Those who have land space can dig multi-chamber greywater cisterns.
Collect water from sinks, showers, baths and washing machines. Use it to water plants, wash cars and flush toilets.
Don’t panic-buy bottled water, rice, canned foods, soap, alcohol, wet wipes. Mass hysteria can artificially shorten supply and drive prices up, warns Steven Cua, president of Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Association.
BBM can focus on big-ticket items like:
• Order DPWH, provincial governors, city/municipal mayors and barangay chairmen to enforce once and for all RA 6716.
Since March 1989 the law required the construction and rehab of water wells and rainwater collectors and development of springs in all barangays. Target was 100,000 wells in all barangays by June 1991.
Yet in 2013, DPWH reported only 754 rainwater collection systems were built, Rep. Lorna Velasco lamented. That’s only 0.018 percent of the total 42,010 barangays. From July 2022 to May 2023 DPWH completed 6,002, only 6.02 percent, of the 100,000 target.
Rainwater collectors are easy to make, environmentalist-lawyer Tony Oposa has advocated for decades. In rural areas, simply identify the lowest public lands. Dig a pond into which rainwater naturally can flow.
It can be, say, 10 x 10 meters, one meter deep. Throw in kangkong for vegetation, and tilapia or gourami to feed on mosquito larvae. Plant shade trees and install benches to make it a barangay park. Small entrepreneurs can even offer kiddie boat rides.
Residents can draw water from the pond for home cleaning, gardening and to wet dusty barangay roads. To concrete the pond, DPWH can provide knowhow while the munisipyo or rich neighbors can contribute cement, sand, gravel.
DPWH has several water collector designs. Easiest to make for urban barangays are stainless steel storage tanks mounted on concrete bases or elevated platforms. Rainwater runoff is collected from gutters and downspouts of barangay halls, public school buildings, markets and health clinics. Faucets can be connected to pipes from the catchments.
Such projects are definitely usable by communities – unlike fake and substandard flood controls that waste billions of pesos from which politicos plunder.
• Promote cool roofing in all neighborhoods.
Elementary science teaches that dark-colored clothing absorbs while light-colored ones reflect heat. Apply this principle to roofing. Encourage the use of light-colored roofs for homes, shops, offices, malls, markets, schools, churches, hotels, factories. Convince makers of long-span and galvanized iron sheets to produce materials in light colors: white, beige, light gray, seafoam green.
Global research have shown that light-colored roofs reduce indoor temperatures by 2.2 to 4.3 degrees Celsius. With shade trees and cool roofing technology, entire city temperatures can drop 1.2 to 3 degrees Celsius. One recent study is by World Resources Institute, Oct. 1, 2026.
Local government units can help fund light-colored roof repainting in all communities. The Climate Change Commission under the Office of the President and DOST can come up with inexpensive cool-roof technologies.
BBM and Congress can take a step further by imposing higher taxes on sale and registration of dark-colored vehicles. Apply this not only to cars, trucks, buses, jeepneys. Include trains, ships, boats, barges.
• Enforce the 2004 Clean Water Act.
BBM must ensure that DENR and National Water Resources Board designate water quality management areas, and protect watersheds and river basins.
He can encourage local governments and conglomerates to clean up waterways. San Miguel Corp. chairman Ramon S. Ang spends P1 billion a year to dredge Pasig, Tullahan and San Juan Rivers and tributaries. Up to two million tons of garbage are removed yearly. BBM can tell other multibillionaires to replicate SMC’s volunteerism in other regions.
BBM can ask governors and mayors to also replicate Quezon City’s Trash-to-Cashback. Under the program, QCitizens exchange recyclable paper, plastic and metal for environmental points. The points can be traded for sandwich spreads, canned fish and meat, rice, eggs, bread, fruits, vegetables, sugar, even toiletries, depending on their corresponding value.
BBM can ensure Cabinet and local government implementation of the Supreme Court’s 2008 order to keep Manila Bay pristine.
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by jariusbondoc | Oct 14, 2026 | Gotcha
The Ombudsman sacked last Thursday Bohol provincial board member Vierna Mae Boniel-Maglasang. Her offense: serious dishonesty.
Twice in 2024 she gassed up two private cars using vouchers strictly for government vehicles. At an average gasoline price of P60 per liter that year, the provincial capitol lost P6,000.
The ombudsman imposed all accessory penalties: cancellation of civil service eligibility, perpetual bar from public office and forfeiture of retirement benefits.
That’s how harsh the law is against fraud and for accountability.
Also last Thursday the BIR records of VP Sara Duterte were bared at the Senate impeachment trial. Among those were payments from Davao City Hall for which she signed receipt, minus withholding taxes, in 2023:
• “Gross compensation income,” P2,361,252 and
• “Legal services,” P82,327.45.
Sara was already VP in 2023; she took office on June 30, 2022. So how come she collected P2.36-million compensation from Davao City where she was mayor and vice mayor from 2007 to 2022? And what legal services did she perform?
The Constitution forbids the President, VP, Cabinet secretaries, Usecs and Asecs from having other jobs, professions or businesses and interest in any government contract while in office (Article VII, Executive Department, Section 13).
Could the P2.36 million be long-delayed compensation as mayor, thus the BIR declaration in yearend 2023? Then again, what legal service did she perform for P82,327.45?
The Local Government Code also prohibits provincial governors and city/municipal mayors from having other jobs, professions or businesses and interest in any government contract while in office (RA 7160, Section 90).
Those amounts are puny compared to the findings of financial forensic analyst Alexander Cabrera. Sara has P817,874,867 unexplained wealth, the CPA-lawyer testified Friday.
Cabrera scrutinized Sara and spouse Manases Carpio’s deposits in over 30 active accounts across eight different banks from 2022 to 2025. Also, P4.4-billion bank inflows that the Anti-Money Laundering Council recorded in 2007-2025. Those consisted of 666 covered transactions, meaning P500,000 and above, and 55 suspicious transactions, meaning of shady nature.
Among the wealth concealment methods was “tinikling” – manager’s checks that were purchased in order to conceal the balances in bank accounts towards yearends when statements of assets, liabilities and net worth were due for filing. And revolving-door funds that were withdrawn immediately after deposit in front corporations.
Cabrera cross-checked those with Sara’s sworn SALNs, income tax payments and audited financial statements of their 18 corporations registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The P817.87 million is conservative, Cabrera added Monday. Sara’s hidden wealth could be almost double – P1.5 billion. That’s if P475 million in confidential funds are added. Also if Cabrera was less conservative in assessing P100-million transactions questioned by the AMLC and P250 million paid to GenCorp Industries Inc.
GenCorp is mysterious. SEC records do not show Sara as stockholder or incorporator, only JTC Group as 55 percent owner. Yet she listed GenCorp as hers in her SALNs for 2022 to 2025.
BIR records reveal GenCorp to own five chicken and burger restaurants in strategic locations in Davao City. One can just imagine the speed of issuance of business permits because of connections to Davao City’s Office of the Mayor.
No less than Sara’s brother, now Mayor Sebastian Duterte, admitted that GenCorp had 19 catering contracts with City Hall in the past three years. Total value: P33,263,161.
Despite all that, exacting accountability seems so difficult. Sara refuses to face the court. She merely issues press statements, including calling the impeachment trial a “sarswela” and the senator-judges as “hawak ni Marcos.”
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Robin Padilla is confused. He can’t differentiate between the Senate as legislative body consisting of Majority and Minority from a trial body consisting of individual senator-judges.
Last Sunday he said his Minority bloc has not discussed boycotting Sara’s trial but that it’s possible: “Wala pong ganoong usapan pero baka malapit na po.”
Why is there a plan to boycott? Robin expounded: “Ayaw namin mabaluktot ang batas. Kapag hindi tumigil ang pagbabaluktot ng batas ay baka dumating sa punto na hindi na kami umattend.”
That means, for Robin, the Minority operates not only in the legislative body but also in the trial body. In effect, for Robin, the Minority can politicize the trial into blocs and factions.
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by jariusbondoc | Oct 9, 2026 | Gotcha
Be part of history. Join the People’s Initiative to wipe out political dynasties. Simply sign the draft legislation on d1l.org. Convince others to sign up too.
Dapat Isa Lang is the first ever citizens’ direct enactment. It needs signatures of three percent of voters in each congressional district, and 10 percent nationwide. Comelec will verify the signatures, then set a referendum. If majority vote “yes,” it instantly becomes law.
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Politicos will not voluntarily give up power. A hundred dynasties have been enthroned for 150 years. They’ve ignored for 39 years the Constitution’s order to define their limits.
Eighty-one percent of congressmen and 83 percent of senators are dynasts. Their relatives control nearly all provinces, cities, municipalities – even barangays.
“Sila-sila lang” breeds corruption. At local levels, related politicos negate checks and balances. At national levels they collude to award themselves pork barrels in the form of discretionary allocations.
This led to the worst scam – P1.7-trillion substandard and ghost flood controls in the past 10 years. Only last Wednesday dynastic congressmen inserted in the 2027 national budget P116 billion in political ayuda and infrastructure pork.
Enough is enough, 15 Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled recently. Still, the House approved a watered-down bill that would in effect legalize and perpetuate dynasties.
If Congress fast-breaks its passage, then our People’s Initiative can repeal it.
We citizens must write and pass the anti-dynasty law ourselves. Dapat Isa Lang put up the online petition so that we can easily, safely, freely sign.
The draft is in English, Filipino, Bisaya and Ilocano. Condensed here are the 13 salient Sections:
(1) Title: An Act defining and prohibiting political dynasties via regulations and penalties pursuant to Article II, Section 26 of the Constitution.
(2) Declaration of Policy: The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public service and prohibit political dynasties.
(3) Definition: Political dynasty consists of two or more relatives within fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, full or half blood, natural or adopted, legitimate or illegitimate, including common-law relationship, who simultaneously or successively run for or hold elective office:
National: President, VP, senator, district or party-list representative;
Local: Governor, vice governor, provincial board member, city/municipal mayor, vice mayor, councilor, barangay chairman, councilman.
(4) Prohibition on Simultaneous or Successive Holding of Elective Office: Only one relative may run for national and one for local office within the same province. Metro Manila is deemed as a province. No succession by spouse, partner or relative right after the term.
(5) Resolution of Conflicting Candidacies or Office-Holding: When two or more relatives run, only one may be allowed to sit. Dynasts shall be allowed to resolve the matter among themselves within 15 days. If there’s no agreement, the relative seeking or holding the higher office shall have preference, based on Section 3.
(6) Disqualification Proceedings: Any citizen can file for disqualification of candidacy, for Comelec to resolve. Candidacies include substitute and party-list nominees.
(7) Quo Warranto: Any voter may file for quo warranto against any official prohibited by this Act at any time during such officer’s incumbency.
(8) Effect of Disqualification or Removal: In case of disqualification or removal under this Act, the qualified candidate who obtained the next highest number of votes shall assume office.
(9) The Philippine Statistics Authority and all Local Civil Registrars shall grant Comelec access to birth, marriage, death and adoption records and other documents necessary to show dynastic relation. This is deemed compliant with Section 4 (e) of the Data Privacy Act.
(10) Penal Clause: Any violator of this Act shall be imprisoned for one to six years, and perpetually disqualified from holding public office.
(11) Repealing Clause: Any law, presidential decree or issuance, executive order, rule or regulation, local ordinance or any part thereof, contrary to or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act is hereby repealed, modified or amended accordingly.
(12) Separability Clause: If any provision of this Act is declared unconstitutional or invalid, the remaining unaffected provisions shall remain in full force.
(13) Effectivity: 15 days after publication in at least two newspapers of general circulation following Comelec certification that this Act was approved by majority of votes in the referendum.
Dapat Isa Lang is led by retired SC justice Antonio Carpio, Fr. Roberto Reyes, Attys. Eirene Aguila, Alex Lacson and Alexander Cabrera, Miguel Karlo Abadines and ex-Comelec commissioner Luie Tito Guia.
Sign up here: d1l.org.
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by jariusbondoc | Oct 7, 2026 | Gotcha
VP Sara Duterte’s acceptance of P150-million contribution from China in 2019 merits full investigation. It was an election year in which Sara ran and won as Davao city mayor. The Omnibus Election Code punishes soliciting and accepting foreign contributions with one to six years in prison, and permanent ban from suffrage and public office.
Ex-senator Sonny Trillanes exposed last Friday the P150-million dole. Defense Sec. Gilbert Teodoro wants documents turned over to authorities for scrutiny.
The Chinese embassy gave the P150 million not directly to Sara but to the nonprofit she heads. Tapang at Malasakit Alliance for the Philippines is declared in her 2022 and 2023 statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.
No politico would admit to directly accepting foreign money. Allegations of $10-million bribe to sign the National Broadband Network-ZTE deal in Boao, China just before the 2007 election rocked Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s presidency.
TMAP lists Sara and Taguig mayor Lani Cayetano, wife of Sen. Alan Cayetano, as trustees/convenors. Also trustees are Sara’s former spokesman and legal counsel Reynold Munsayac and Davao city information officer Jefrey Tupas.
The P150 million was supposedly for “construction of 13 classroom buildings.” Meaning, unit cost of P11.54 million.
Trillanes said TMAP received the donation in 2019 and disbursed the last P8.42 million in 2020. The embassy and TMAP signed the donation in August 2018 in coordination with DepEd-Davao.
In 2019 DPWH built classrooms for P1.2 million to P2.5 million each. If by Angat Buhay Foundation of then-VP Leni Robredo, it was only P850,000.
The Constitution forbids foreign political contributions. Article IX-C, Constitutional Commissions, Section 2 (5) states:
“Financial contributions from foreign governments and their agencies to political parties, organizations, coalitions or candidates related to elections constitute interference in national affairs and, when accepted, shall be an additional ground for the cancellation of their registration with the Commission on Elections, in addition to other penalties that may be prescribed by law.”
Article XI, Accountability of Public Officers, Section 1 also enshrines public office as public trust, and lays the foundation for strict anti-corruption rules.
RA 6713, Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, Section 7 (d) prohibits them from soliciting or accepting – directly or indirectly – any gift, gratuity, favor, entertainment, loan or anything of monetary value from any person in connection with official duties or regulated transactions.
RA 3019, Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, Section 2 (c) penalizes officials for accepting or receiving gifts, presents or benefits from private or foreign entities in connection with official intervention or favor.
Sara launched TMAP on Oct. 23, 2017 at a big bash at Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Present were then-foreign secretary Alan and wife mayor Lani Cayetano. Also Sara’s brother, present Davao Mayor Sebastian Duterte, then-Ilocos Norte governor-now-senator Imee Marcos and ex-president Joseph Estrada.
TMAP brought together groups and individuals supportive of then-president Rody Duterte. Throughout 2017 Duterte continuously belittled Manila’s arbitral victory against Beijing over the West Philippine Sea. In 2018 he professed love for President Xi Jinping, whom he asked to make the Philippines a Chinese province.
In 2019 – the year of the P150-million contribution – he dismissed as “ordinary maritime accident” the midnight hit-and-run by a Chinese maritime militia steel trawler of an anchored Filipino wooden boat. Twenty-two fishermen were thrown into the cold dark sea off Palawan.
Trillanes bared another P319 million from the “Chinese government and corporations” to Sara’s spouse Manases Carpio’s Cale88 Foods Corp. Cale88 is one of 18 firms that Sara declared in her SALNs. It reportedly trades banana chips.
Cale88 had no sale in 2021 and only P20,000 in 2022, Trillanes added. Sales zoomed to P23.15 million in 2023, then fivefold to P150.76 million in 2024 and P34.55 million in 2025.
Yet in 2024 Cale88 paid BIR only P10,705 income tax, Trillanes noted. It listed no rank-and-file employees and ended the year with P400,294 cash.
Cale88 factory’s electricity bill was only P8,000 a month in 2023. Trillanes said: “Hindi ‘yan pang-factory ng banana chips.”
It had no trade receivables or payables, implying that it bought and sold goods only in cash. “Parang banana-que stall, ’pag bumili ng materials at magbenta, cash.”
Sara’s lawyer Paolo Panelo retorted Saturday: “Trillanes has been peddling exhausted lies since 2016.
“He’s been peddling the same exhausted lies regarding extrajudicial killings, fabricated drug links, imaginary unexplained wealth, baseless corruption allegations and fictional China connections against the Duterte family.
“Because of these repeated, unmasked deceptions, the Filipino people have rightfully and overwhelmingly rejected Trillanes in every subsequent attempt to get elected back into public office.”
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