Palma: WikiLeaks info hard to assess

CEBU Archbishop Jose Palma said yesterday that he wouldn’t give credence to the information released by anti-secrecy website, WikiLeaks.

Palma said this was because the WikiLeaks information was difficult to assess.

“My question is how much is true (are the information from WikiLeaks)? How much is make-believe?” he asked.

“If we try to give credence to everything that they say, then where would this lead us? There are a lot of question marks that I raised when I read the many allegations and comments they have,” said the 61-year-old prelate, who was referring to the WikiLeaks report about Rep. Tomas Osmena, (Cebu City south district) and the creation of the “Hunter Team,” a special squad tasked to go after criminals in the city.

WikiLeaks released the report last August 26, which was a cable Wikileak intercepted from the United States Embassy in Manila.

The report said that Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, Director Alejandro Alonso of the Commission on Human Rights in Central Visayas (CHR-7) and the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), purportedly supported the Hunter Team.

The cable said Archbishop Emeritus of Cebu Ricardo Cardinal Vidal criticized extra-judicial killings in the city.

Despite WikiLeaks showing the Vidal’s stand as within the fold of the Catholic Church doctrine, Palma said he still doubted the information released from the anti-secrecy website.

Palma instead said he wasn’t giving importance or credence to the information because it would threaten diplomacy between the country and the US.

Palma was referring to agreements between countries that should have been kept confidential.

“If we give credence to WikiLeaks, to me this threatens the supposed to be many areas of diplomacy. These (WikiLeaks information) are downloaded from supposed to be diplomatic communications,” Palma told reporters who interviewed him after he officiated Mass at the Marian Shrine in Simala, Sibonga town, southeastern Cebu. Reporter Ador Vincent S. Mayol