(UPDATE) MANILA, Philippines — A former lawmaker, lawyer and 18 ex-Marines are facing criminal and cyberlibel charges before the Department of Justice (DOJ) for linking some individuals to alleged multibillion peso cash deliveries to government officials and the International Criminal Court (ICC) contained in pieces of luggage
National Security Adviser Eduardo Año filed criminal charges against former representative Mike Defensor, lawyer Levi Baligod, and the 18 former Marines over what he described were “malicious imputations” and fabricated allegations on the alleged paper bag money exchange.
The respondents were charged by Año with unlawful means of publication and unlawful utterances before the DOJ on Wednesday.
Año said that the filing of charges marked only the first legal action he intended to pursue against those he believed orchestrated the accusations.
"I was really surprised. And of course you can say I am really mad with their malicious imputations. Never in my life would I do that. That's why I'm going after them. This is just the first case," he said.
Año also denied allegations that he received money through paper bags, stressing that such accusations run contrary to his decades of service in the military and government."
Meanwhile, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Thursday filed criminal complaints against Baligod, 18 former marines, and several pro-Duterte personalities for cyberlibel, perjury, and incriminating an innocent person in connection with the same cash deliveries.
The 26-page complaint-affidavit was filed before the DOJ targeting Baligod and the 18 self-confessed former security aides of resigned AKO Bikol party-list representative Zaldy Co, who claimed in a press conference last month to have delivered billions in cash to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., lawmakers, and even Trillanes himself.
Also named respondents were former government official Lorraine Badoy-Partosa, vlogger Cathy Binag, Defensor, and veteran broadcaster Jay Sonza for their social media posts amplifying the allegations.
At the center of the complaint is the Feb. 24, 2026 press conference organized by Baligod at Club Filipino in San Juan, where the 18 self-described former marines detailed their alleged firsthand knowledge of "maleta" or luggage deliveries containing P805 billion in cash to various officials. Baligod specifically claimed that Trillanes received $2 million to fund and facilitate the ICC investigation into former president Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs.
"Instead of doing his job as a lawyer, by helping his clients to prepare their pleading and assisting them in filing a case or presenting the same before the appropriate forum, however, Atty. Baligod gleefully turned himself into a character assassin," Trillanes said in his complaint.
The former senator argued that the timing of the press conference — held on the eve of the Edsa People Power anniversary and during the second day of ICC hearings for the confirmation of charges against Duterte — was deliberately malicious and designed to undermine the integrity of the international proceedings.
Trillanes maintained that his involvement with the ICC case against Duterte, which dates back to 2017, was driven by moral conviction and not monetary gain. He cited a statement from the ICC Office of the Prosecutor clarifying that all investigation costs are covered by the court's approved budget and managed independently.
"The filing of the ICC case was done out of my moral and professional conviction and duty as elected representative of the people. I was not motivated by money then to file the case against the most powerful man in the country before the ICC," Trillanes stressed.
The complaint also highlighted social media posts from Badoy, Binag, Defensor, and Sonza that allegedly helped spread the defamatory statements. Badoy's posts referred to Trillanes as "Trilling" and a "most rotten dirty scoundrel," while Binag questioned his sources of income. Defensor broadcast the press conference live on Facebook, and Sonza shared detailed summaries of the allegations to his nearly 400,000 followers.
Trillanes invoked a Supreme Court ruling in Domingo v. Badoy-Partosa, which held that online content creators with large followings should be held to the same standard as journalists and can be penalized for recklessly publishing falsehoods.
For the 18 ex-marines, Trillanes is pressing perjury charges, arguing that their notarized joint affidavit contained deliberate falsehoods. He pointed to inconsistencies in their statements, including admissions during a "Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho" interview that they did not personally witness the alleged money transfer to him.
"These hearsays and blatant inconsistencies on whether or not the affiants actually and personally saw the transfer of the alleged 'maleta' containing $2 million to me betray the lies and fabrications necessarily invented to launch and sustain this smear campaign," Trillanes said.
Baligod, meanwhile, faces an additional charge of incriminating an innocent person under Article 363 of the Revised Penal Code. Trillanes noted that Baligod later contradicted himself in media interviews, first claiming Trillanes received the funds, then denying the ex-senator was directly given money, and even accusing Trillanes of kidnapping in connection with Duterte's eventual detention in The Hague.
Trillanes argued that since he was no longer a public officer, crimes like bribery or corruption of public officials could not apply to him, making Baligod's imputations a clear violation of the law.
The complainant urged the Justice Department to find probable cause against all respondents and file the appropriate informations in court.
"After his fifteen minutes of fame, he must be held to account for his clear transgression of the law, together with all his cohorts, who provided him moral comfort and material aid, and connived with him in publicizing his tall tale of lies," Trillanes said.
