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| Antonio Trillanes (Image: Wiki Commons) |
By Karl Malakunas
After launching his political career from a jail cell, Philippine Senator Antonio Trillanes believes it could end in a grave thanks to a relentless campaign against his "hitman" president.
But the former Navy officer with a history of coup attempts appears to thrive on the pressures that have come with regularly accusing President Rodrigo Duterte of being a corrupt mass murderer.
"This man is a sociopath and he has the mindset of a hitman," Trillanes, 46, told AFP in an interview on Wednesday from his senate office, offering a typically incendiary assessment of his rival.
Duterte won last year's presidential elections on a brutal law-and-order platform in which he promised an unprecedented campaign to eradicate illegal drugs in society by killing up to 100,000 traffickers and addicts.
He vowed so many bodies would be dumped in Manila Bay that the fish would grow fat from feeding on them, and said he would pardon police if they were found guilty of rights abuses while enacting his drug war.
Since Duterte assumed office in the middle of last year, police have reported killing more than 3,800 people while thousands of others have been murdered in unexplained circumstances.
Many Filipinos looking for quick solutions to crime continue to support Duterte, according to polls, and he enjoys majority backing in both houses of Congress.
Read the full story at PhilStar