This was how presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte described on Thursday (May 5) the plunder case filed against him.
Petitioner Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said Duterte hired more than 11,000 ghost employees which cost Davao City more than P700 million in 2015.
Related: Trillanes files plunder complaint vs. Duterte
“It’s a fiction in his mind… He’s trying to pin me down in between the winning and the proclamation,” Duterte said.
The mayor was in Marinduque for his last campaign rally before his miting de avance on Saturday.
He said he’s relieved and was hopeful that people now understood him more.
In his speech, he sounded like he was almost certain of winning — he was telling the audience to give him local officials he could work with as president.
But the mayor was well aware that many people were trying to keep him away from the presidency: Trillanes and the people backing him.
He suspected Malacañan was behind the senator.
Duterte said this might be possible because the Palace knew that they would have to answer to him if he won the presidency.
He said he had his eyes on Trillanes whom he believed could also be behind a group of military officials who put up an online video calling on people not to vote for him because of his alleged ties with the Communist Party of the Philippines.
Duterte said Trillanes could go ahead and try to launch a coup — but he warned he might answer back with a revolutionary government.
“Maghintay lang siya mag-presidente ako,” he said.
[Translation: “He should just wait till i become president.”]