Marcos admits speaking to OPAPP chief Deles in audio recording

(Photo from the official Facebook page of Bongbong Marcos)

MANILA—Senator Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. on Tuesday admitted that the lawmaker and government official conversing about the Mamasapano clash in an audio recording were him and Secretary Teresita Deles of the Office of Presidential Adviser on Peace Process (OPAPP).

”It’s really our conversation,” he told the media.

“Nobody told them to do it. I did not allow them to do it nor asked permission to do it. So, it was unauthorized,” he added.

The audio recording is in possession of retired police Chief Superintendent Diosdado Valeroso who will present the recording before the senate committee probing the Mamasapano clash.

Valerosa claimed that the recording was sent to him via email by an individual who don’t wish to be named.

Even Sen. Marcos doesn’t know who recorded him and Veles when they conversed at his office in the Senate.

“There were like, I think, 50 people. We don’t know who did the recording because our office that the time was open, everybody comes and go,” he said.

Legal action

OPAPP is considering taking legal actions against individuals who have the “illegal” audio recording in their possession.

“Anyone who recorded the audio without expressed permission from those identified in it can be prosecuted for violation of the said law,” OPAPP legal consultant Attorney Jomer Aquino said.

Cover up

Valeroso told the media that the audio recording showed “a deliberate attempt to cover up the Mamasapano massacre” and its investigation.

On the other hand, both Sen. Marcos and Secretary Deles denied this allegation.

“The claim doing the rounds in social media that OPAPP Secretary Teresita “Ging” Deles saw me in my office on January 26, the day after the Mamasapano incident, to “whitewash” the investigation is definitely not true. There could not even be any suggestion of a “whitewash” because there was no investigation yet at that time,” Sen. Marcos said.

“I have said this before and I will say this again, those allegations of whitewash and cover-ups are false. It was a disservice then, as it is a disservice now to our people to mislead, confuse and lie to them,” Secretary Deles said in a statement.

“People who wanted again to hit the administration through the peace process, released and shared under false headline the recording of my meeting with Senator Marcos, making it appear that the conversation was about a whitewash and a cover-up instead of an innocent conversation about the incident in which it was clear that we were both trying to make sense of what happened, given the details available at that time, and concluded with an agreement to wait for more information,” she added.

The senator stressed that during his meeting with Deles, the OPAPP secretary only explained to him what happened on the grounds.