Robredo denies LP has links with ”Bikoy”

May 23, 2019

Vice President Leni Robredo denied involvement of the Liberal Party on the allegation of a man who claims to be behind the videos accusing President Rodrigo Duterte and those close with him of involvement in illegal drugs.

In a press conference Thursday, Robredo said he never met Peter Joenel Advincula and the last time he went to Ateneo de Manila University was last December attending a Christmas party of her former office located inside the university.

Advincula, who says he is ''Bikoy'', said they were conducting meetings in relation to their plan to unseat Duterte in two of the Philippines' biggest private school where he was able to meet Robredo once.

“There is an implication that we saw each other. I just want to say that I don’t know him, I never talked to him, never text him, and never had a communication between us,” Robredo said.

Robredo said the first time she saw Advincula was when he surfaced for the first time at Integrated Bar of the Philippines headquarters.

“I just want to say that I can speak for the Liberal Party and we don’t have any involvement in this Bikoy issue. I already asked Senator Kiko (Francis Pangilinan) as he is the party president and he told me he don’t know this,” said Robredo.

Just like the camp of the administration, she also called the accusations “unfair”.

“Those accusations are not true. I’m ready to face any forum, any investigation because I’m confident with the truth. For my part, there are a lot of persons involved and Liberal Party was pull again on this controversy,” she said.

“It’s unfair to include the Liberal Party here,” she said.

Robredo said if this action is to harass them, the Liberal Party will not stop and continue to criticize the administration if there is a need to do so them.

Robredo said the administration since 2015 accused her of wanting to oust the president.

She said Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who Advincula alleges is the person behind the videos, is not part of their party and only had a coalition with their Magdalo Partylist because of Rep. Gary Alejano.

Alejano was one of the opposition’s senatorial candidates in last week's 2019 midterm elections.

Robredo said she met Trillanes few times just to discuss strategy of the Otso Diretso for the elections.

“He presented a survey on how to strategize for the campaign but other than that, in all of our meetings, there is no mention of destabilization… no mention of Bikoy. All our meetings are with regards to the campaign,” she said.

She said they are studying Advincula’s allegations with their legal department.

“When the videos were released, they already shot down his credibility. So I cannot understand the credibility was shot down but now that the opposition is being accused all of the sudden he is credible again?,” asked Robredo.

Robredo said she believed Advincula is not credible especially that the latter mentioned meeting her.

She said their meetings were in relation with the Otso Diretso and done in her office or at their headquarters in Quezon City.

“He is the one who admitted that he invented a lot of stories so I don’t know why we need to listen to him,” she said.

For his part, Trillanes also denied the accusations of Advincula adding this could be another ploy of the administration to harass the opposition.

“I deny the allegations made by this Bikoy character. This could be another ploy of the administration to harass the opposition. For now, I will be consulting with my lawyers so that we could also file the appropriate charges against him,” he said in a statement.

Otso Diretso candidates, Gary Alejano and Romulo Macalintal also denied the allegations.

In a radio interview, Alejano said he will not follow Trillanes if he has these kind of plans while Macalintal said he never met Advincula.

Of the eight opposition candidates, Advincula said he was able to meet seven of them, except former Senator Mar Roxas.

“Maybe he (Advincula) said he did not meet him (Roxas) because Roxas is always not with us during campaign,” said Macalintal. Advincula on Thursday held a press briefing at Camp Crame where he revealed Trillanes and his camp were neglecting him after their candidates lost in the elections. Ella Dionisio/DMS