Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo changed his tune today and said that the “Oust Duterte” matrix released last week actually came from an unknown source. This contradicts his earlier claim that the controversial document came from the president.
Panelo said during a press briefing today that President Rodrigo Duterte told him about the matrix during a phone call over Holy Week in late April. He said Duterte told him to discuss it in his next press briefing, although he had not seen the matrix at the time of the phone conversation.
Panelo told reporters that he got a copy of the matrix through a text message from an unknown number.
“President [Rodrigo] Duterte didn’t give [me] anything. Someone sent me a matrix. I told you that someone sent me a text,” he said in Filipino.
But that’s not what he said last week.
“The source of that is from the Office of the President. It’s from the President himself,” he said during a press briefing on April 22, according to ABS-CBN News.
Panelo said today that the matrix he received from the unknown source was the same one Manila Times, a newspaper with links to the administration, published on April 22.
He said the one he received from the anonymous source was blurry, prompting him to ask his staff for a copy from the Manila Times.
The matrix links several media organizations to an alleged ouster plot against Duterte. It alleges that the controversial YouTube videos of the Ang Totoong Narco List (The Real Narco List) series were distributed to Rappler, the National Union of People’s Lawyers, and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) by veteran journalist Ellen Tordesillas, the president of Vera Files.
When asked why Panelo trusted the allegedly anonymous source, he said he did because the president seemed to confirm that it’s the same as the matrix they talked about earlier.
“Obviously it’s the same matrix. Otherwise, the President would have said, ‘Hey, that’s not the matrix’,” Panelo said.
Panelo said that he didn’t feel the need to verify any information given by Duterte about the alleged ouster plot.
“I don’t have to verify what the President told me because he is the President. The President does not lie about those things … The President does not lie on anything, on serious matters. He’s a very honest man.”
He added that Duterte “will not release any information that he has not validated.”
The Manila Times also claimed that they received the matrix from a “highly-placed source” in Duterte’s office and alleged that the journalists published the videos to incite public anger and lead to Duterte’s ouster. These groups have denied being involved in the plot.
The issue escalated further when Felipe “Ipe” Salvosa, the Manila Times’ managing editor, resigned following the publishing of the controversial matrix. He said that he didn’t agree with the publication of the story.
Meanwhile, Charito Zamora, the officer-in-charge of the Department of Justice’s Office for Cybercrime, announced today that the alleged uploader of Ang Totoong Narco List has been arrested. Zamora clarified that the National Bureau of Investigation only arrested the alleged uploader of the videos, and not Bikoy, an anonymous man who introduced himself in the viral videos as a former member of a drug syndicate.
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