‘Bikoy’ arrested in Albay: PNP

MANILA – Embattled whistleblower Peter Joemel Advincula alias ‘Bikoy’ has been taken into custody by police authorities in Albay after he was ordered arrested by a Manila court, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Friday.

In a report, Lt. Col. Ronnie Fabia, officer-in-charge of the Daraga Municipal Police Station (MPS), said Advincula, 31, with a registered address in Barangay Tupas, Donsol, Sorsogon and in Purok-2, Barangay Tinago, Ligao City, Albay personally appeared and submitted himself to the Daraga Municipal Police Station on Thursday noon.

Fabia said Advincula was informed of the cause of his arrest and apprised of his constitutional rights in a dialect known to and understood by him and has undergone mandatory booking procedures and documentation.

On Wednesday, Judge Immaculada Concepcion Ylagan-Galang of the Manila Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 17 issued the arrest warrant against Advincula for perjury with a recommended bail set at PHP18,000.

In 2019, Bikoy was named in a perjury charge by lawyers Theodore Te, Jose Manuel Diokno, and Lorenzo Tañada III, who were among the 36 persons named in sedition raps in connection with supposed efforts to undermine the Duterte administration during the May elections through the so-called “Ang Totoong Narcolist” video”.