Robredo laughs off sedition charges

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo laughed off on Sunday the sedition raps filed by the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group against her and several opposition and Church leaders, saying that she is not that stupid to attempt the ouster of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Nor did she have the time to cook up anything against the administration, since the allegation that she was involved in making and spreading the six-part “The Real Narcolist” videos happened at the height of the campaign period for the May midterm polls, she added.

‘We’re not that stupid’

“First, we are not too stupid that we can imagine to oust the President, who enjoys high ratings, using a witness who is a known liar,” Robredo said on her weekly radio show, referring to Peter Joemel Advincula, who had earlier come out as “Bikoy,” supposedly the man in the videos.

“We cannot even find enough time to go around the country [for the campaign], would we really still plot for the President’s ouster? We’re not that stupid,” she added.

Aside from Robredo, the complaint filed before the Department of Justice last week also named Senators Risa Hontiveros and Leila de Lima and former Senators Antonio Trillanes IV and Paolo Benigno Aquino IV as respondents.

Candidates who ran under the “Otso Diretso” slate in the midterm elections were also named, except for former Sen. Mar Roxas.

Also charged with sedition were Caloocan Bishop Pablo Virgilio David, retired Bishop Teodoro Bacani and Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas.

On Friday, the DOJ said that it had already formed a panel of special state prosecutors to look into the charges.

The actions of the PNP and the DOJ over the complaint would be reflective of their performance over their mandates, whether they are rotten or not, Robredo said.

“At first glance, you know these are all lies. It’s two things: either the PNP was used or they were the ones who used these people,” she said. “The statements are easy to verify. If they did not verify, isn’t that humiliating?”

“On the other hand, they may be the ones pulling the strings,” she said. “I don’t know which among these two is happening, but I hope it is not a reflection of the sloppiness of the entire PNP.”

The other respondents have likewise criticized the charges, branding the PNP as “stupid.”

Malacañang, meanwhile, distanced itself from the complaints, but added that the President said it was “about time” to know the truth behind the videos.

The videos, released earlier this year on social media, linked the Presiden, his family and his associates to the illegal drug trade in blow-by-blow revelations by the hooded Bikoy, who later turned around and pointed fingers at the opposition as the people behind the video series.