PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday, May 8, said he was not keen on filing charges against the personalities allegedly plotting to unseat him based on the matrix released by Malacañang.
"I'm not interested to file cases," the President said late Wednesday night during a campaign rally in Garcia-Hernandez town in Bohol.
Duterte's remarks came after Malacañang released a new matrix that linked some members of the Liberal Party (LP) and Magdalo group to "Bikoy", the hooded man in the "Ang Totoong Narcolist" series of videos who accused the Duterte family of involvement in the illegal drugs trade.
Other matrices also link some media outfits and prominent personalities to the supposed ouster plot against Duterte.
In his latest speech, Duterte bared that the latest information about the alleged plot to destabilize his government came from a foreign intelligence community.
The President, however, was unfazed by the "black propaganda" launched by the opposition.
"Nagpadala sila ng black propaganda (They waged a black propaganda)," he said.
Malacañang has claimed that former presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, blogger Eduardo "Cocoy" Dayao, communist founder Jose Maria "Joma" Sison, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, web developer Rodel Jayme, and other LP members and supporters were in collusion with Advincula to oust the President.
The Palace's allegation came after Advincula, the hooded man who linked Duterte's family to illegal drugs, released a series of videos titled "Ang Totoong Narcolist."
The videos were allegedly uploaded on social media "to discredit this administration, as well as to boost the candidacies of the opposition's senatorial candidates," Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Wednesday.
The LP, Magdalo party, senatorial hopefuls from the opposition, and other personalities included in the matrices, have quashed the Palace's allegations.
In a statement issued late Wednesday, Panelo said the executive already expects that the people in the diagrams would deny involvement in the ouster plot.
He, however, insisted that the supposed plotters in the broader matrix were exhausting all means to vilify the President.
"Some personalities linked with the Oust Duterte Matrix issued poker-faced denials, which naturally are expected of them. Yet one begins to wonder why they were all praises for the Bikoy videos, with some even anticipating the online release of the same as if they already knew of their existence," the Palace official said.
"The diagram of personalities and groups shows the linkages among them. It appears they are working together to discredit the Administration by planting the seeds of hate on the President for him to lose the trust he earned from - as well as the mandate given him by - the people," he added.
Panelo said there was no need to investigate those who are named in the diagrams, stressing that "the government’s time and taxpayers' money cannot be wasted."
He said the Palace would just leave the filing of charges to the Department of Justice, since Duterte has no plan of suing the supposed conspirators who want to unseat him.
"We will leave to the Department of Justice the task of prosecuting the people who appear to have violated the law," Panelo said.
"Due process is given, its observance is unequivocal as it is mandatory, as demanded by the Constitution and as meticulously and strictly observed by this Administration. It is in the legal arena that the rules on evidence will hold sway. The parties will be given their day in court," he added. (SunStar Philippines)