as i said in overkilling bikoy, the 5-episode narcolist video was well done. the script went straight to the point, very confident of its facts (kuno?). it was impossible not to be piqued by curiousity, at the very least — totoo kaya ito? — because if true it would answer the biggest question re duterte’s drug war that hangs over many a truly thinking pinoy mind: WHY is this drug war helpless against suppliers of shabu, i.e., the drug lords and traders and smugglers? BAKIT mga small-time user and pusher lang ang binabanatan? at nagiging malinaw ang dahilan KUNG totoo ang mga paratang ni bikoy na kabilang sa drug lords ang mga kapamilya’t kaibigan ng pangulo.
of course we wanted / want proof, and not from a hooded anonymous source. yet, when, lo-and-behold, um-appear si bikoy sa IBP noong may 6 at humarap sa media, introduced himself, reiterated his accusations, and requested a senate investigation, alas no lawyer dared step up to serve as his legal counsel, and alas the senate prez and DDS propagandists were quick to discredit him, driving him into hiding. checkmate agad.
i wonder tuloy, what if bikoy had found a lawyer, and senator lacson had proceeded with the senate investigation that friday before monday 13 may? would such have lost the duterte candidates some votes? or would such have made it worse for otso diretso just because bikoy might have buckled pala under interrogation under oath, given that, as he now claims, it was all a lie, all scripted by senator trillanes et al, in a conspiracy to topple the president and replace him with the vp.
with bikoy’s recantation of may 23, we’re back to square one, back to not knowing anything for sure. the duterte camp has always denied involvement in the drug trade. trillanes and the liberal party et al have always denied a conspiracy to topple the president and, also now, any involvement in the making of the narcolist video.
but neither camp is known for transparency, and it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that both camps are lying to us, including, obviously, bikoy, who is fighting for his freedom if not his life, and whose new script seems closer to his heart, as in, walang kodigo, maybe because he was rigorously rehearsed? or maybe because madali namang sakyan ang storyline ng pangulo na wala nang gagrabe pa kay trillanes at sa mga dilawan na kating-kati siyang patalsikin. at tuwang-tuwa naman si PNP chief albayade, at least that’s what he looked like while listening to bikoy’s recantation.
even solgen calida has offered to help bikoy deal with the cases against him, and also to prepare possible complaints based on his new testimony. and first on the agenda, it would seem, of senators-elect bong go and bato post-june30 is a senate investigation to expose the ones behind the narcolist video
but wait. here’s the defense secretary. ‘wag daw maniwala agad.
“Let us not be hasty in giving credence to what he is saying. From what I heard and read, he has been lying at every turn,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters.
“His motive? Of course, to save himself!” Lorenzana said, adding that the retraction should be substantiated.
yes, please. in either case, we want evidence. winnie monsod reminds us of that april series of five in Once a liar, now he’s telling the truth?
The “Bikoy” videos came out—five of them—starting on April 2 and ending April 22. Each video focused on a different personality; the first was Paolo Duterte, the second was Honeylet Avanceña, the third was Bong Go, the fourth was Manases Carpio and the fifth was Elizalde Co, all allegedly involved in the drug trade. Three were members of the President’s family—his son, his “partner” and his son-in-law; one was a close-in aide, and the fifth was someone from Bicol.
when bikoy changed his story may 23, he named a dozen or so individuals allegedly behind the narcolist video. and because strangely enough no amount of googling surfaces any report quoting him naming these names, here’s my own transcript of a couple of pertinent parts of the presscon, word for word.
15:55 – 17:04
BIKOY. … May 6 ako lumabas. May 5 we had a meeting. We had a meeting with the. We had a meeting with the. With the Project Sudoma (Sedona?) team. Nandoon sila Sonny, yung chief security niya, sila Junel, yung Magdalo group, nandoon yung ibat ibang religious organizations, yung sa communications namin.Ang plano talaga magfa-file kami ng kaso sa ombudsman, kaya lang yung abogado namin from the plan headed by Atty Chel Diokno, sila Teddy Te, Teodoro Te, Atty Te, yung dati nasa Supreme Court, tapos a certain Atty Chito, kinuha yung serbisyo ni Atty Abiel Fajardo ng IBP. Si Atty Abiel Fajardo naman ang suggestion, instead na pumunta sa Ombudsman para magfile, pumunta muna sa kanila at pagkatapos ng filing, pagkatapos doon isusumite ko yung sinumpaang salaysay ko, then it’s up to them to determine kung mabibigyan ako ng free legal assistance through ng NCLA na pinamumunuan ni Atty Jun Ambrosio.
21:30 – 22 36
Q: Kung gawagawa lahat … sinong gumawa ng script … [nito at] pati yung mga episode one to five?BIKOY. Ah. Ang Project Sedoma. Ang Project Sedoma ay binubuo ng ilang katao. hindi lang si Senator Sonny Trillanes. Nandyan yung chief security niya […] Junel, ok? Sa mga conversation namin ang code ni Senator Trillanes sa grupo is Estella, ok? … Nandyan din yung staff ni Senator Leila de Lima, a certain Atty. Bill [Phil?]. Si Senator Hontiveros ilang beses pumunta din doon pero hindi naman madalas. Pero dalawa sigurong pumunta doon sa Ateneo de Manila para sa mga pagpupulong, mga dalawa tatlo. Tapos a certain Yoly Villanueva Ong, communications, Vicente Romano, Bong Enriquez, and a certain businessman Dan Songco. So sila yung nasa likod ng production ng Ang totoong narcolist.
interesting names there, di ba. some of them have denied the charge outright, some continue to maintain a dignified (?!) silence.
it can only be one of two things: (1) they had nothing to do with the narcolist video, or (2) they had everything to do with the video and they have evidence to prove their allegations.
either way, i hope they have solid scripts.
RANDY DAVID: “The many faces of Peter Joemel Advincula”
https://opinion.inquirer.net/121584/the-many-faces-of-peter-joemel-advincula
The public first saw him in a series of videos posted on social media as the hooded guy who called himself “Bikoy.” He told a story that was potentially damaging to the nation’s highest authority. Bikoy claimed that people very close to the President were regular recipients of drug protection money. He knew this, he said, because he had been part of the drug syndicate. His conscience bothered him so much, he claimed, that he was compelled to come out. He also feared for his life.
After the videos went viral, a man purporting to be Bikoy showed up at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), seeking legal assistance so he could file charges against the persons he named in the video exposé. Officers of the lawyers’ organization politely received him even though they were shocked that the man seeking their help seemed more concerned to make a statement to media using the IBP logo as backdrop. The IBP later decided not to offer him legal assistance.
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This was Peter Joemel Advincula’s first public appearance as himself. When he vanished after that visit to the IBP, people began to wonder what this man was up to, what his next move was, and what his whole game plan meant to achieve. The lightning appearance at the IBP obviously made it easy for the police to track him down. As it turned out, he had a previous criminal record. The police pounced on this to discredit the figure behind the videos. Advincula, they announced, had been in jail for fraud, and there was a pending arrest warrant for him in connection with another case.
The Philippine National Police, from the start, showed no interest in investigating the allegations of the “Bikoy” exposé. Still, they could not decide whether to dismiss the man as a fraudster who had taken the public for a ride with his viral videos about a supposed “true narcolist”—or to hunt him down as a dangerous man who had in his possession information that was damaging to the presidency.
Then, all of a sudden, Advincula surrendered to the police. The PNP instantly called a press conference. But, what a bizarre scenario that was. Unlike those instances when the police would present to media a wanted man they have been looking for — usually a bowed and contrite figure desperately shielding his face from the camera — this time, they let their man speak from a podium with all the self-assuredness he could command, as though he were addressing not just the assembled reporters but the whole nation. PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde rationalizes this absurd spectacle as a recognition of this fraudster’s right to freedom of speech.
Advincula’s glib peroration about the shifting calls of his conscience and the way the opposition supposedly manipulated him, while the camera panned the grave faces of the PNP’s top brass behind him, was a scene straight out of “Sic o’clock News,” the satirical TV show of the late ’80s. It is best to let farcical spectacles like these speak for themselves. But, as absurd as they are, they open up a lot of intriguing questions.
It is clear to me that Peter Joemel Advincula is not the whistleblower he earlier projected himself to be. But even so, the story he told in those videos is difficult to dismiss as outright fabrication. Though hard to prove under present circumstances, it carried a certain plausibility that made audiences sit up to ponder the scandal it implied. If untrue, the narrative that Bikoy mouthed could only have been put together by con men familiar with the complex reality of the illicit drug trade.
Trillanes admits priests brought ‘Bikoy’ in Aug 2018; says Bikoy failed vetting
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/27/19/trillanes-admits-priests-brought-bikoy-in-aug-2018-says-bikoy-failed-vetting
“Unang inilapit sa akin si Bikoy ng mga pari noong August last year. Ayon sa kanila, ito raw si Bikoy ay humingi sa kanila ng sanctuary dahil siya raw ay papatayin ng mga taga-sindikato na involved sa illegal drugs. Pinakinggan ko siya subalit nakulangan ako at naguluhan sa mga detalye kaya isinantabi ko at tuluyan nang kinalimutan ang usapang ito,” he said.
“The fact na hindi ko siya inilabas dito ibig sabihin hindi siya nakapasa sa aming vetting process at lalong hindi ko siya kinupkop…Sa awa ng Diyos, hindi pa ako nasusunog sa mga nilabas ko,” he said.
He also pointed out that he was in the news the entire month of September 2018 after President Duterte revoked the grant of amnesty for him and a Makati court issued a warrant for his arrest.
ANTONIO CONTRERAS: “Failing the ‘Bikoy’ test”
https://www.manilatimes.net/failing-the-bikoy-test/560810/
The LP now condemns Bikoy — when they previously sang paeans to him — as a charlatan peddling a ridiculous canard. And the DDS, who previously even demanded that Bikoy should be charged with inciting to sedition, are now defending his right to speak.
NINEZ CACHO-OLIVARES: “The innocence act falling flat”
https://tribune.net.ph/index.php/2019/05/29/the-innocence-act-falling-flat/
There are two things that can be gleaned from Trillanes’ denial in role in the “Bikoy” series: One is that he admits, even as he denies his role in the destabilization plot, that Advincula is the “Bikoy” in the video series and that the usual anti-Duterte media was certainly in on it.
There really is more than meets the eye on this anti-Duterte plot and only the yellows, Reds, the unholy whites and the anti-Duterte media continue to deny this plot of which they already had engaged in last January 2001.
Try denying that, you lying plotters.