MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo denied the Liberal Party (LP) had anything to do with the viral video linking presidential son and ex-Davao City vice mayor Paolo Duterte to illegal drugs.

Robredo said on Friday, April 5, the once-ruling LP does not have the resources to mount what President Rodrigo Duterte tagged as “black propaganda” against his son. 

“Kaya nga kami nahihirapan kasi kakaunti na lang naman iyong natira sa partido. At kayo iyong makakapagsabi na wala nang means para mag-mount ng something like this. Sa kampanya pa lang nga, hirap na hirap na kaming umikot dahil walang resources, papasok pa kami sa ganito?” Robredo said in an ambush interview on the sidelines of her Ahon Laylayan Coalition’s launch in Tagbiliran, Bohol.

 (The reason why it’s hard for us is that only a few members are left in the party. And even you can say that we do not have the means to mount something like this. On the campaign trail, it’s already difficult to go around since we don’t have resources. Then we will enter into something like this?)

The viral video, titled “Totoong Narco List,” features “Bikoy,” an anonymous person who claimed to have worked for a drug syndicate operating in Southern Luzon and the Visayas. The man says he was involved in recording the syndicate’s transactions, which Paolo Duterte supposedly benefitted from.

The President said the “yellows” and opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV are allegedly behind the video. Yellow is the color of LP.

LP’s numbers, however, have massively dwindled since the mass exodus of its politician members to Duterte’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan since the latter won the 2016 presidential polls.

This has forced LP to focus on recruiting non-politician members instead.

 LP is also a part of the opposition coalition that is fielding the Otso Diretso senatorial slate. The ticket has been hounded by lack of machinery and steady flow of funds since the campaign period started. – Rappler.com