Panelo backtracks, admits matrix source ‘unknown’

MANILA, Philippines — After receiving flak over the matrix that linked certain media personalities and lawyers to an alleged ouster plot against President Duterte, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo yesterday backtracked from his claim that the matrix came from no less than his boss.

Burdened to prove the Palace’s accusations, Panelo negated his own statement during his April 22 press briefing at Malacañang that the “source is the Office of the President. It’s from the President himself.”

In an attempt to distance the President from the matrix, Panelo also revealed yesterday that while he merely followed Duterte’s directives to expose the alleged ouster plot, he admitted not knowing the source.

“He did not give anything. Someone sent me a matrix. I told you that someone sent me a text,” he said during a press briefing. Somebody, he said, sent to him the information via a mobile number not registered in his phone.

The Palace spokesman’s change of tune came after the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers urged Malacañang to prove the veracity of the alleged Oust Duterte plot, calling the Palace’s move as “unfair” and “not even close to the basic rules of evidence, basic rules of fair play and due process.”

The group also sought from the Supreme Court a writ of amparo and writ of habeas data for its members and filed the matrix as a supplemental manifestation to justify plea for protection from alleged harassment by government forces.

Yesterday, Panelo insisted that the President asked him to discuss it during the regular press briefing with reporters after the Holy Week break.

Panelo said he stands by the fact that the President asked him to expose the oust plot, but he also had to get a copy of the matrix from The Manila Times, which published the story.

Pressed further why he did not bother to verify the source of the matrix, Panelo said he simply assumed that it was the same matrix that he discussed with Duterte.

“I reasonably assumed that that was the matrix mentioned by the President and when I mentioned that in the news briefing, since he did not dispute that or corrected me, so, it means it’s the same matrix that he referred to me to touch upon in the news briefing,” Panelo said.

“I don’t have to verify what the President told me. The President doesn’t lie about these things,” he added.

Panelo also went around in circles in defending how Duterte supposedly got information on the oust plot from a foreign source.