Aguirre insists media misquoted him on destabilization claim

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre ll. Tetch Torres/INQUIRER.net

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II is adamant in his position that he was misquoted by the media about the alleged involvement of opposition lawmakers in the supposed destabilization plot against President Rodrigo Duterte that led to the Marawi seige.

In a statement released Friday, he maintained that during the June 7, 2017 press conference he repeatedly told the media that he does not want to speculate pending investigation.

“Only that the media didn’t mention [my] repeated precautions that [I have] yet to fully verify the truth of the reported incident,” Aguirre said.

The Justice Chief pointed out that knowing that the information he mentioned was raw, he immediately issued a Department Order and case build-up over the alleged destabilization plot against the government by some opposition senators.

READ: Did Justice Secretary Aguirre fall for fake news?

He added that he also did not release or send to anyone any picture of any Marawi meeting, saying what he did was to swiftly flash one picture in his mobile phone but did not allow anyone to take pictures “precisely because the same is pending verification.” IDL