Vice President Sara Duterte speaks to her legal counsel as she refuses to enter the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, citing safety concerns, before posting bail for her grave threats case on Saturday, September 5, 2026. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News
MANILA — Former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has been "peddling the same exhausted lies" against the Duterte family since 2016, the camp of Vice President Sara Duterte said on Saturday.
Duterte's spokesperson, Salvador Paolo Panelo, said the supposed lies include "fabricated" drug ties, "imaginary" unexplained wealth, and "fictional" connections with China.
"The Vice President would gladly sue him for these endless fabrications, but we have already witnessed how those who actively peddle malicious lies against her and her family are openly protected and propped up by this administration, as clearly seen in the cases of Ramil Madriaga and their latest pawn, Rodulfo Gracioso Jr.," Panelo said in a statement.
Madriaga claimed that he was the vice president's bagman. Gracioso, self-proclaimed former aide of former House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco, said he delivered suitcases of money from illegal means to the Duterte family.
The vice president denied links to both Madriaga and Gracioso.
Panelo said Trillanes' "malicious fabrications have been exposed at every turn by the very pawns he used to rely on" such as Peter Joemel Advincula and lawyer Jude Sabio, who said they were used by the former senator. Trillanes has denied such claims.
"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," the spokesman said.
"It took a morally depraved administration and an international court desperate for relevance to breathe life into his dead claims with the extrajudicial rendition of former President Rodrigo Duterte to the ICC (International Criminal Court) in 2025, despite an undeniable dearth of credible or admissible evidence," he added.
The former president has been detained at the ICC over supposed crimes against humanity as human rights data showed Duterte's brutal drug war led to thousands of extrajudicial killings.
Former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV holds a press conference at Club Filipino in San Juan City on Friday, October 2, 2026, where he presents his findings on the alleged ill-gotten wealth of Vice President Sara Duterte, which he says were supposed to form part of his testimony in her impeachment trial. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News
Trillanes was supposed to testify in the vice president's impeachment case but was dropped by the prosecution, based on his own decision.
"This sudden retreat is absolute proof that his claims cannot survive real legal scrutiny, and are nothing but black propaganda, which is par for the course for a professional character assassin," Panelo said.
Trillanes then held a press conference on Friday, in which he accused the vice president and her husband Mans Carpio of receiving millions worth of remittances from China.
READ: Trillanes accuses Sara Duterte, Mans Carpio of receiving millions in funding from China
He also alleged that the vice president, the former president, and her siblings received payoffs from Davao-based entrepreneur Sammy Uy, who he repeatedly said is a known drug lord in Davao.
Panelo said the vice president thanked Filipinos for "seeing through" the former senator's "media stunt for the absolute garbage that it is, and as part of this government's increasingly diabolical, well-funded plot to politically destroy her, one that will ultimately fail because the public knows the truth."
Duterte, he said, will let evidence speak for itself in the Senate impeachment court.
ABS-CBN News reached out to Trillanes for a comment but has yet to receive a response.
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