Quezon City Representative (and former actor) Alfred Vargas confirmed that it was him, not a drug lord seen, that’s seen partying with Justice Secretary Leila De Lima in a viral video taken during a party last year, reports ABS-CBN News.
A video posted by “Pilipinas Kong Mahal Tungo sa Pagbabago” on Facebook claimed that De Lima was partying inside the New Bilibid Prisons. The man wearing sunglasses beside her was claimed to be drug lord Herbert Colangco.
The video has been viewed 1.6M times as of this writing.
Vargas cleared the air on Radio DZMM on Tue, Jul 19, and confirmed that he was the man in the shades in the video. He needed to put on sunglasses because he had sore eyes during the party.
“Nagulat na lang po ako, bigla na lang po ako naging drug lord,” said Vargas as reported on ABS-CBN News.
Colangco has been named by President Rodrigo Duterte as one of the country’s top three alleged leaders of drug trafficking operations. He has been serving time in the New Bilibid prisons since 2009 for being linked to several bank robberies in Metro Manila.
Vargas said he was present at De Lima’s party because the senator is a family friend. (Apparently, his mom and De Lima are tight.)
De Lima’s office had already confirmed that the party was not in Bilibid but at the Department of Justice quadrangle last Aug 2015 to celebrate her birthday.
The senator noted in another report by ABS-CBN News that the other individuals present in the video were emcee Imelda Papin and former Justice Undersecretary Jose Vicente Salazar.
Moral of the lesson? Don’t immediately believe things posted by unknown sources, kids.
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