Palace says LP is afraid of its own ghost

Senator Franklin Drilon and former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

The Liberal Party (LP) is only “afraid of its own ghost” after accusing the Duterte administration as behind the testimony of self-confessed bagman Ricky Serenio implicating LP stalwarts in the illegal drug trade.

Serenio had earlier identified LP officials Sen. Franklin Drilon and former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas as drug protectors of slain drug lord Melvin Odicta Sr.

“The administration has nothing to do with the testimony of a drug cartel bagman Mr. Ricky Serenio implicating Sen. Franklin Drilon and Former Sec. Mar Roxas as to the illegal drug trades in the Visayas,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a statement read by Assistant to the Presidential Spokesperson China Jocson during a Palace briefing.

On Thursday, the LP said the allegations against Drilon and Roxas proved the government’s “all-out attempt to demonize LP” and to “divert attention from pressing issues.”

READ: Mar Roxas says bagman’s claims ‘double hearsay,’ ‘bizarre’

Instead of “swallowing the words of the so-called bagman and wasting time on this new controversy,” the LP said the Duterte government could just better use its time investigating and finding those behind the P6.4-billion shabu shipment from China that slipped past the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

But Malacañang lashed back at the former ruling party.

“The Liberal Party is afraid of its own ghost after conducting several witch hunt investigations against their perceived political enemies when they were in power,” Abella said. /jpv