Police on Thursday filed a complaint of inciting to sedition against 38 people, including Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo and other opposition figures, as well as eight Catholic clergymen, over the “Bikoy” video series uploaded on social media.
The complaint, by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), was based on the July 18 sworn affidavit of Peter Joemel Advincula, who accused opposition and church figures of using him to “spread lies against the President, his family and close associates.”
The Justice department said it had received the complaint and would form a panel of prosecutors to investigate.
Aside from inciting to sedition, the CIDG accused the 38, including Advincula, of cyber libel, libel, estafa, harboring a criminal and obstruction of justice.
Advincula, according to the CIDG complaint, claimed a plan was hatched at the Jesuit Communications office at Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City, to topple President Rodrigo Duterte and install Robredo in Malacañang, as well as to improve the chances of the opposition slate in the May 2019 elections.
The 38 personalities were said to have conspired in producing and spreading the “Bikoy” or “Ang Totoong Narcolist” (The True Narcolist) videos on social media, with Advincula posing as the hooded and anonymous whistleblower “Bikoy.”
The videos linked Duterte and his family to illegal drugs.
Included in the complaint were senators Risa Hontiveros and Leila de Lima, as well as former senators Antonio Trillanes IV and Bam Aquino, and members of the opposition “Otso Diretso” slate, such as Jose Manuel Diokno and Lorenza Tañada III.
Also charged were Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, Bishops Honesto Ongtioco of Cubao, Pablo Virgilio David of Caloocan and Teodoro Bacani, the former bishop of Novaliches, Fathers Flaviano Villanueva, Albert Alejo and Roberto Reyes, and Br. Armin Luistro, a former education secretary.
Advincula turned himself in to the police in May. He was said to have been under the protection of Catholic clergy.
The alleged conspiracy to bring down Duterte, which the Justice department said was dubbed “Project Sodoma,” supposedly began as early as August 2018. (PressONE.ph)