(Eagle News) – Senator Panfilo Lacson cancelled the supposed hearing on Friday, May 10, at the Senate where Peter Joemel Advincula alias “Bikoy” has been invited following Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto’s revelations that this supposed witness had been making the same allegations in 2016 against the officials of then of the Aquino administration.
“Senate President Sotto said it all. We are now recalling the letter of invitation sent to Advincula yesterday. Notices will be sent out for the cancellation of the committee hearing on Friday. Enough of this non-sense,” Lacson said in a statement.
Sotto, in a presscon Wednesday, May 8, said that Advincula had been making recycled allegations.
Advincula had also submitted a sworn statement in December 2016 claiming that no less than the former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, and former Justice Secretary Leila De Lima were allegedly “patrons” of the so called “Quadrangle” drug syndicate.
Sotto said that his aide secured this sworn statement from Advincula who also claimed that syndicate members used alphanumeric “identity codes” for monthly payoffs amounting to 30 million yuan or P230 million which was supposedly coursed through a local bank.
Advincula was then serving a prison sentence when he made the same allegations against the Aquino administration.
“I did due diligence kaya noong 2016, hindi ko pinatulan ito. Medyo iniba niya lang nang kaunti ang script, iniba niya lang ang personalidad, ito naman ngayon,” said Sotto.
(I did due diligence in 2016 so I didn’t believe this then. He just changed his script a bit. He just changed the personalities involved, and here it is again.)
Sotto said that he had asked the bank named by Advincula then and the bank concerned showed him what their forms for bank accounts were, and these were nowhere near what Advincula had been claiming.
“Ni hindi daw ganyan ang numbering at lettering nila ng mga bank account nila kaya imposible daw iyun,” Sotto said.
Advincula claimed had been sued for estafa and given a six-year jail sentence. He claimed he was freed in 2016 for good behavior.
But the Philippine National Police said that Advincula had also been convicted over a large-scale illegal recruitment case, for which he served six years in jail.
This was different from what Advincula had claimed on Monday that he was jailed for six years because of an estafa case.
PNP chief PGen. Oscar Albayalde said that Advincula still has a pending estafa case for which a separate arrest warrant can still be sought.
“Mukhang magaling siyang mang-estafa at magaling siyang magsalita. Just could just imagine you’ll be charged for large-scale recruitment. Ibig sabihin, ang dami niyang naloko,” he said.