MANILA (4th UPDATE) - Malacañang on Wednesday accused the Liberal Party and the Magdalo group of conspiring to oust President Rodrigo Duterte and to boost the candidacy of opposition senatorial slate Otso Diretso.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the information came from President Rodrigo Duterte himself and claimed that the conspiracy also involved media practitioners.
“The President has received intelligence information that shows there is a deliberate conspiracy between certain groups to discredit his admin for purposes of this election and the groups,” he said in a press briefing.
“According to the intelligence information, it seem to be the Liberal Party, the yellows, Magdalos and the media outfits as well as the organizations indicated in the matrix presented to you the other week,” he added.
Some political personalities tagged by Panelo to the supposed conspiracy are Otso Diretso senatorial bets Bam Aquino, Gary Alejano, Florin Hilbay, Mar Roxas, opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, and Edwin Lacierda, who served as spokesman of former president Benigno Aquino III.
Communist leader Jose Maria Sison, Olympian Hidilyn Diaz, and television host Gretchen Ho were also linked to the alleged conspiracy to discredit President Duterte.
Their names appeared in a presentation shown by Panelo to Palace reporters on personalities, claiming that they supposedly have "online collaboration" with Rodel Jayme, who is accused of spreading the controversial “Ang Totoong Narco-list” videos.
The Palace earlier showed a matrix linking lawyers and journalists critical of the Duterte administration to an alleged ouster plot against the President. It was first published by The Manila Times on the day that Panelo said he was supposed to share the information to reporters.
Panelo earlier hinted at a “bombshell” after Peter Joemel Advincula who claimed he is "Bikoy" –the man who linked President Duterte's family to the narcotics trade through a series of viral videos, surfaced Monday.
Advincula introduced himself as “Bikoy,” a hooded figure in the “Ang Totoong Narcolist” videos which claimed that drug money was funneled into the bank accounts of Duterte's son former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, son-in-law Atty. Manases Carpio, and former aide Christopher Go.
Advincula also claimed that he used to keep financial records for the drug syndicate that allegedly had dealings with the Duterte family.
He surfaced at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines to seek legal aid and deny his alleged ties to the opposition senatorial slate Otso Diretso.
AMATEUR MATRIX
Members of the opposition slammed the release of new matrices for tagging alleged destabilization plotters "without really going through validation process."
"All of that are propaganda. Like the narco-list, hindi dumadaan sa proseso (it did not undergo any process) and they are releasing that to the public, destroying reputations of people without being responsible of the consequences of their actions," Alejano told ANC on Wednesday.
"Kung talagang involved kami, paparusahan kami, kasuhan kami. In fact right now, they can file cases against us so we can defend ourselves,” he added.
(If we are really involved, punish us, file cases against us.)
Liberal Party President Senator Francis Pangilinan meanwhile criticized Malacañang for "falsely accusing" their party of involvement in supposed ouster plots.
"This is the nth time that the administration, when confronted with controversy, falsely accuses the LP of being involved in ouster plots. Gawa-gawa lang yan (that's just fabricated)," he said.
Lacierda meanwhile said "a Grade School Matrix does not an evidence make."
"This government seemed to have discovered a new technology called The Grade School Matrix as this is the third time this government employed a matrix to refute charges against them," he said in a text message to ABS-CBN News.
Sison, in a statement, dismissed the diagrams as "not even worth a scrap of toilet paper."
"The best way to reduce the drawing of diagrams or matrices to absurdity is to use the toilet of the presidential palace as the common point of reference for a criminal linkage between ex-dilawan Duterte and Noynoy Aquino and all sorts of people going to the palace and using the same toilet," he said.
The communist leader also hit Panelo for releasing diagrams on supposed plots to discredit Duterte.
"When the boss is someone as mentally deranged as Duterte, even someone like Panelo who is reputed to be a clever lawyer (abogado de ultimo remedio) appears to be stupid by following that sort of master," Sison said.
Diaz and Ho meanwhile denied knowing Jayme as well as the controversial videos linking the Duterte family to drugs.
"Sino si Rodel Jayme? Hahaha di ko po kilala. Lol nakakatawa naman," Diaz told ABS-CBN News in a message Wednesday.
(Who is Rodel Jayme? I don't know him. That's funny.)
"Regarding being included in the “matrix”, I don’t even know who Bikoy is, I have never watched the videos nor shared them, and I have no idea who Rodel Jayme is," Ho said in a tweet.
Responding to the denials, Panelo, in another statement, said the administration will let the justice department handle the prosecution.
"Due process is given, its observance is unequivocal as it is mandatory, as demanded by the Constitution and as meticulously and strictly observed by this Administration. It is in the legal arena that the rules on evidence will hold sway. The parties will be given their day in court," he said.
Rodrigo Duterte, Malacanang, Salvador Panelo, ouster, conspiracy, Peter Joemel Advincula, Bikoy