Former Undersecretary explains why Trillanes must have connection with Triad

Sen. Antonio Trillanes during senate hearing, photo from Manila Bulletin

Former Undersecretary for Special Concerns Abraham "Abe" Purugganan answered Senator Antonio Trillanes IV's accusation that Vice Mayor Paolo may be a part of a Chinese triad, by saying Trillanes must be the member himself.

Trillanes in a senate meeting said, "Binigay sa 'kin ng foreign intelligence... Si Paolo Duterte member ng triad. Ang proof ng kaniyang membership, ang kaniyang tattoo sa likod,"



 According to the Senator who is a vocal critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, the membership of Paolo Duterte can be proven by a colored, dragon-like tattoo etched at his back.

According to the Senator who is a vocal critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, the membership of Paolo Duterte can be proven by a colored, dragon-like tattoo etched at his back.

Abe Purugganan

According to Purugganan who posted statements on his Facebook account, if the information did come from a foreign country, the question is if it came from a foreign agency.

If this is the case, Trillanes could have had no access to such information as it would be classified.

He said Trillanes could have lied, just did the act to shame the Duterte family, or that the information came from the triad itself.

"Now if it is not from the foreign intelligence services or law enforcement units, that information could have come from the TRIAD. If it is from the TRIAD, is Trillianes connected with  the TRIAD to have access to such information. And why is a Philippine senator talking to  Chinese mafia called the TRIAD?   Is he working with the TRIAD,  drug syndicates & narco politicians / generals to remove Pres Duterte from office? If this is so, then he is a protector and playing the deception game. So, he lied again," he said.



Purugganan said Trillanes had 16 unofficial trips to China which could have been "enough for the Chinese intelligence or PLA or the TRIAD to conduct a recruitment operation on Trillianes".

He added that when he was with the Center for Transitional Crimes, one of their studies was on the global operation of the said Chinese triad.

"One of the things that I was particular about was the cooperation of the TRIAD by the PLA. This was a forceful and coercive way for Beijing to assert its influence over the Chinese communities around the world. This was part of China's 10-year strategic plan to establish regional hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region. That was 16 years ago. They might have total control now of the TRIAD," he said.

He added that the Senator, if he was in fact connected with the triad, is being used to go against the Duterte administration.

"This is a very serious matter of national security and it has far-reaching political and economic implications," he said.

Tackling Trillanes' accusations, Paolo Duterte  admitted to a tattoo, but said that he will not answer questions regarding it. He said he is invoking his right to privacy.



"I am very sorry... but I cannot answer allegations based on hearsay," he said.

Asked to show his tattoo by Trillanes, he answered "no way".

Duterte after Trillanes' insistence to show the tattoo,  replied with "Ilang beses ko ba sasagutin na ayaw ko?”

After said remark, Senator Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee told his fellow Senators to be careful with their allegations.

"The Chair would like to request respectfully that we should not make allegations here without any basis because triad is a very serious allegation and we should not abuse any of the witnesses here," he said.

"The Chair would like to counsel everyone here to be very careful because everybody has rights here and the Chair intends to ensure that we respect those rights," he added.

Malacañang on Thursday said Trillanes should present substantial evidence.

Source/s: Abe Purugganan, GMA News

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