Palace on alleged LP plot vs. Duterte: Any threat is cause for concern

Malacañang on Monday said that any threat against President Rodrigo Duterte should be a cause for concern, including the destabilization and assassination plots allegedly involving the Liberal Party.

“As far as we know, matters like these arise everyday, almost everyday. Threats and the like. And so, I’m sure it’s going to be also looked into,” presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella told reporters.

“Any threat is a cause [for] concern,” he added.

Abella, however, admitted that Malacañang had yet to receive a report about the alleged LP plot against the President, as revealed by Duterte’s defeated senatorial candidate Greco Belgica.

Former Manila Councilor Greco Belgica on Monday accused some members of the former ruling party of plotting to destabilize the administration, even assassinate Duterte, to pave the way for rise to power Vice President Leni Robredo.

Belgica said Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, former President Benigno Aquino III, former political adviser Ronald Llamas, former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, former Interior Secretary Manuel "Mar" Roxas II "are the ones heading the plans."

"These are intelligence reports. And they are after the President, his family and his men, and us that are working on their cases [on their liability over the Disbursement Acceleration Program]," Belgica told GMA News Online.

The DAP was the previous administration's purported economic stimulus package, portions of which were found illegal by the Supreme Court in 2014 for improper use of savings and inter-branch transfer of appropriations.

"The attempts are consistent. They [LP] are talking to mercinaries. Remember, the President's convoy has been attacked already," Belgica said, referring to the ambush by suspected New People's Army members on the Presidential Security Group (PSG) convoy in Arakan, Cotabato on July 19.

He named Trillanes and Llamas as "operators" of the alleged kill plot against Duterte.

Belgica, a defeated senatorial candidate, also said he believed the LP was involved in the siege of Marawi City perpetrated by the extremist Maute group.

He did not provide details although Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said on June 7 that some opposition figures had a meeting with the Alonto and Lucman political families in Marawi City on May 2, three weeks before Maute fighters seized some parts of the city on May 23.

Aguirre then implicated Trillanes, Llamas, Senator Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV, Magdalo party-list Representative Gary Alejano.

Aquino, Trillanes and Alejano denied that such meeting occurred as they slammed Aguirre for spreading "fake news."

Aguirre, meanwhile, claimed he was misquoted by the media.

He also apologized to the Alonto and Lucman families "for any confusion about the issue."

Abella said that Belgica should have substantial evidence to support his claims.

“Not true according to our own inquiry of our commanders in [M]arawi,” Lorenzana said in a statement to reporters. —NB/KVD, GMA News