Press Release
February 1, 2020

Dispatch from Crame No. 711:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima on Peter Co's testimony on direct examination at yesterday's (Jan. 31) hearing

Again, this whole story about me soliciting campaign funds for the 2013 elections from Bilibid inmates is pure concoction.

Peter Co originally said that the funds were for the 2013 elections, but were supposedly delivered when the filing of candidacy for said elections was already over. I never filed any certificate of candidacy for said elections. Everybody knows that.

Ganyan ba katanga ang drug lord na ito na basta-basta na lamang siya nagbibigay ng milyones base sa sabi-sabi ng isa pang drug lord para sa isang kandidatura na hindi naman mangyayari at alam niyang hindi mangyayari? Kung ganoon eh nakakapagtaka kung bakit hindi pa nalulugi sa negosyo ang drug lord na ito. Nakakapagtaka din kung paano naging drug lord ang ganito katangang tao na kayang-kaya palang lokohin nang ganoon kadali ng mga kapwa niya drug lord.

At kung para sa 2016 elections naman ang binigay nila kuno, ayon sa pagpapalit-palit ng kanilang kwento, aba eh sobrang advanced naman sa info ang mga drug lords na ito na 2012 pa lang alam na nila ang plano ko para sa 2016, habang ako mismo hindi ko pa alam kung ano ang ihahanda ko noon para sa noche buena ng 2012, pagtakbo pa kaya sa eleksyon ng 2016?

As of 2012, running for any elective post was farthest from my mind. I decided to vie for the senatorial post in the 2016 elections only during the 2nd half of 2015. So, how could I have solicited for campaign funds four (4) years back? Besides, I would NEVER, never did or do and will never ask or receive any illicit money, drug money or otherwise, from any inmate or anyone.

It's so convenient a story that these prosecution witnesses would point to a fellow dead inmate, Tony Co, as the one who allegedly collected the bulk of the funds for a non-existent election campaign from other unnamed inmates.

Recall that Tony Co was fatally stabbed in a staged prison riot last Sept. 28, 2016. Also stabbed were Peter Co himself, Vicente Sy, and Jaybee Sebastian. Said stabbing incident occurred before they testified at the kangaroo hearing of the House Justice Committee. After they were stabbed and allowed to recover by their jailers, they suddenly became then SOJ Aguirre's willing witnesses.

We have it from credible sources that these inmates initially refused to testify until they were stabbed. Need I say more?

I'm confident that the cross-examination of Peter Co at the next hearing will convincingly and absolutely demolish his false testimony, as it was with the case of the other lying prosecution witnesses before him.

(Access the handwritten copy of Dispatch from Crame No. 711, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_711)

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