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Duterte hits claim linking daughter Veronica to drug trade


President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday slammed allegations linking his youngest child Veronica to the illegal drug trade.

"Kayong mga black propaganda, pati 'yang anak ko na si Veronica, 14 years old, drug addict? May ipalabas ako you just wait," Duterte said in a speech at the PDP-Laban campaign rally in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan.

He then threatened to release foreign intelligence reports which, he said, detail the connection of human rights groups to attempts to discredit him.

"What you did not know is that you are being listened to habang ginagawa ninyo 'yang mga kalokohan niyo. Ilabas ko 'yan in a few days, pine-perfect ko lang ang ano. It was an intelligence report not from us but from another country," he said.

Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo earlier said that the government's narco list was based on information provided by foreign governments that had wiretapped Filipinos.

He later backtracked on this assertion, saying that it had only been an "educated guess" of his.

The video series, "Ang Totoong Narcolist," has a certain Bikoy claiming that he was a former member of a drug syndicate member and that he had evidence of the involvement of the president's eldest son Paolo Duterte in the narcotics business.

The second video accused Veronica as well as her mother, Duterte's partner Honeylet Avanceña, of receiving payoffs from the illegal drug trade and depositing such transactions in banks in Hong Kong.

Avanceña has cried foul over the allegations.

"Tell them, pag sure oi. Napaka walang hiya ko naman na nanay kung ipangalan ko sa anak ko," Avanceña said.

Duterte, who has since dismissed the videos as "propaganda" from the opposition, had aired strong speculation that his political enemies, including Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, were behind the video.

Trillanes has denied the accusation. — BM, GMA News

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