FILE PHOTO: Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s “enemies” are using convicted felons to carry out a “demolition job”, according to his former spokesperson, Atty. Salvador Panelo (in photo). INQUIRER file photo
MANILA, Philippines — Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s “enemies” are using convicted felons to carry out a “demolition job,” his former spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Thursday.
Panelo stressed in a statement sent to reporters that these convicts may only be saying unfavorable things against Duterte and his family members to obtain favors regarding their cases.
He also said that these prisoners have nothing to lose “since they are jailed for life.”
“The demolition job on the Dutertes is in full swing,” Panelo said. “The enemies of FPRRD (Duterte) are using convicted felons of murders and drug trafficking to link him to the murders of the 3 Chinese detainees of which they were the perpetrators on the basis of their bare allegations.”
“Obviously, they (are) making those statements for a consideration. If it is true as they say that they killed the 3 Chinese in exchange for money and release from prison, necessarily they can lie about FRRRD’s (Duterte’s) alleged link to the murders for the same consideration of money and freedom coming from those who want to destroy the Dutertes,” he added.
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Panelo’s statements came after Leopoldo Tan, one of the two individuals who were convicted for the killing of Chinese nationals Chu Kin Tung, Jackson Lee, and Peter Wang inside the Davao Penal and Prison Farm in August 2016, claimed that it was former president Duterte who ordered the hit.
According to Tan, he heard Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) official Supt. Gerardo Padilla talk to a “person” over the phone after the alleged kill order was carried out, and the person even congratulated the jail officer.
Tan said he knew from the voice of the person who called Padilla that he was Duterte.
“While we were walking to the Investigation Section, Supt. Padilla’s phone rang. I saw that he pressed his cellphone. I heard the person who called Supt. Padilla say ‘Congrats Supt. Padilla, job well done. But what was done was brutal, they turned it into blood soup’,” Tan said, reading his sworn affidavit before the quad-committee hearing Thursday.
“I knew that Supt. Padilla was talking to President Duterte because his voice is familiar. After the call, Supt. Padilla told his colleagues: ‘the President called, he congratulated me.’ Because of what Supt. Padilla said, I was even more convinced that it was President Duterte who called,” he added.
Tan said he and a certain Fernando Magdadaro were promised P1 million each and their freedom in exchange for killing the three jailed Chinese nationals.
Tan and Magdadaro were already inmates when allegedly hired to kill the foreigners,
Currently, Tan and Magdadaro are detained at the Philippine Military Academy’s Support Company.
During the first quad-committee hearing on Aug. 16, former Bureau of Customs (BOC) intelligence officer Jimmy Guban claimed that undersecretary Benny Antiporda sent emissaries in 2018 to warn him that he will die if he tags Davao City 1st District Rep. Duterte, Atty. Manases Carpio – husband of incumbent Vice President Sara Duterte, and former economic adviser Michael Yang in the shipment of illegal drugs in 2018.
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Rep. Duterte and Antiporda have separately denied Guban’s accusations. According to Rep. Duterte, he has never met Guban, adding that the ex-BOC official cannot be treated as a star witness as he is not credible, having been cited for contempt for lying at the Senate blue ribbon committee.
Guban is facing life imprisonment for drug importation.
Also on Thursday, another spokesperson of Duterte, Atty. Harry Roque, said the hearings in Congress tackling illegal drugs, extrajudicial killings, and other issues during the administration of ex-President Duterte have no probative value.
“Res inter alios acta […] No probative value,” he said.