Senator Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/JOAN BONDOC
“This is all crap,” Senate President Franklin Drilon said of a supposed plot by supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo to discredit and eventually unseat the President.
Drilon assured that plotting President Rodrigo Duterte’s ouster was farthest from Robredo’s mind.
“No I haven’t talked to her but I can assure you that this alleged plot is farthest from the mind of VP Leni,” he said in an interview with Senate reporters on Monday.
READ: ‘I am not a part of any plot to oust Duterte’—Robredo
“There is no such thing, I can assure our people,” the senator added. Drilon and Robredo both belong to the Liberal Party.
Drilon advised the executive branch to exercise “extreme caution” in giving credence to such reports as he himself had been charged based on fraudulent document that also appeared on social media.
He was referring to the plunder case filed at the Office of the Ombudsman against him, former President Benigno Aquino III and other former Cabinet members in connection with the alleged illegal shipment of gold bars from the Union Bank of Switzerland to the Bank of Thailand using Centennial Energy (Thailand) Company Limited last December 2014.
The allegation was reportedly based on a fake article that has gone viral on social media.
READ: Viral story gives Aquino his first spurious plunder rap
“My advice to the executive branch is exercise extreme care in basing your decisions on social media, particularly on alleged plots appearing in social media. In the first place, if this is really a credible plot, you will never find it in social media,” Drilon said.
READ: Duterte oust plot shows how admin is ‘paranoid’—solon
He said it would be a waste of time for the government to investigate such reports.
Senate President Aqulino “Koko” Pimentel III said he would not blame the administration if it would look into the matter.
“All reports, all rumors about destabilization or threats to the administration should be investigated and seriously treated pero (but) that’s their attitude so I will not blame them for that, I will not criticize them for that,” Pimentel said in a separate interview. IDL/rga