Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo was not threatened by the sedition and other charges filed against her by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG), saying that their complaint was ‘ridiculous.’
“Nakakatawa talaga kasi unang-una, hindi naman tayo sobrang bob* na nag-iimagine tayo na mapapataob natin ang napaka… ang Presidente na napakataas ang rating, na gagamitin itong isang tao na obviously sinungaling (It was really funny because first of all, we are not that stup*d to imagine that we can bring down a President who has a very high rating; to use this person who is obviously a liar),” Robredo said on her weekly radio show Biserbisyong Leni on Sunday, July 21.
The PNP-CIDG earlier filed complaints of sedition, inciting to sedition, cyber-libel, libel, estafa, harboring a criminal, and obstruction of justice against Robredo, several opposition personalities, as well as priests over the controversial videos that tagged President Rodrigo Duterte’s family and allies to the illegal drug trade.
The complaint accused them of engaging Peter Joemel Advincula, the man who claimed to be the hooded figure in the viral videos, “to spread lies against the President, his family and close associate, making them to appear as illegal trade protectors and how they earned staggering amounts of money.”
The Vice President, however, denied this, saying she has no time to even be involved in such issue, especially at the time when the videos were released online.
“Sa gitna pa talaga ng kampanya? Hindi na nga tayo magkanda-ugaga at kulang na kulang iyong panahon, kulang na kulang ng panahon para makaikot sa bansa. Talagang ang aatupagin pa natin pagpataob ng Presidente (In the middle of campaign, really? We were too busy and we did not have enough time; not enough time to go around the country. Would we really plan to topple the President)?” she said.
Robredo’s spokesperson Barry Gutierrez had dismissed the complaint as “kwentong kutsero (hearsay),” stressing that if it was purely based on Advincula’s statement, then it is “completely baseless and nothing more than plain and simple harassment.”
[READ: Opposition blasts sedition, other raps filed by PNP-CIDG against them]
The Department of Justice (DOJ) already formed a panel of three state prosecutors who would conduct a preliminary investigation on the PNP-CIDG’s complaint. These were Senior Assistant State Prosecutor Olivia Torrevillas, and Assistant State Prosecutors Michael John Humarang and Gino Paolo Santiago.