Malacañang on Thursday recanted its previous statement that “oust Duterte plot” matrix came from the Office of the President (OP) or from the president himself.
Last April 22 during the press briefing in Malacañang, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo that “the source of that is from the Office of the President, from the President himself,” adding that he doesn’t know how the president it.
Panelo said that Duterte simply told him to discuss the matrix in his press briefing.
“No, what I said—ito ha, ito: He asked me to discuss it in the briefing – iyong matrix. And then, somebody sent me a matrix, oh eh di iyon ang niri-refer niyang matrix. Wala namang ibang matrix,” Panelo said.
According to Panelo, it was Dante Ang, author of the matrix article in Manila Timed who said that his source was Office of the President.
“According to Dante Ang, it came from the Office of the President, ‘di ba. He wrote about it. The President also told me to discuss it or to touch on my news briefing. Eh di ibig sabihin, the same … pare-pareho lang iyon,” Panelo added.
Panelo also denied that it was Malacañang which coined “oust Duterte plot matrix.”
The Palace spokesman admitted that they have no plans of filing charges against those journalists and lawyers implicated in the matrix saying its still premature considering they haven’t committed any crime.
