Pimentel on latest drug exposé: Don’t be fooled by online videos

Screen shot of a video circulated online.

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III advised the public to discern videos posted online in the wake of an alleged exposé linking Presidential son Paolo Duterte to illegal drugs.

Pimentel also asserted that the persons behind the video are against President Rodrigo Duterte or those who did not vote for the President.

“‘Wag tayo masyadong madaling maniwala ngayon sa mga nakikita natin online at saka ang nakikita ko yung gusto magpush nun ‘di bumoto kay President Duterte yung mga anti-Duterte talaga nag-pupush dun,” he said in an interview with local radio station DWIZ on Saturday.

(Let’s not be fooled by what we are seeing online and from what I’m seeing, those who are behind that video are those who did not vote for President Duterte and those who are anti-Duterte.)

The former Senate President was referring to the video titled, “Ang Totoong Narcolist, [True Narcolist] posted on Tuesday on a Facebook account “Metro Balita.”

The video showed a man wearing a hoodie, who identified himself as Bikoy, claimed he handled financial records of the drug syndicate that operated in Southern Luzon and Visayas.

Bikoy claimed that the younger Duterte received payoffs from drug syndicates, noting that Paolo used two code names, “Polo Delta-TSG01” and “Alpha Tierra-0029,” in the syndicate’s financial transactions.

READ: Video linking Polong Duterte to drugs ‘black propaganda’

But, Pimentel doubted the credibility of the evidence in the video as people can easily create documents and make up signatures in a digital file.

“Ang dami na mga camera ngayon. Ang dali daling gumawa ng dokumento, ang daling mag-attach ng signature sa digital file,” he said. /jpv