The Cabinet of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte will investigate an alleged email leak that reportedly reveals that the country’s vice president has been involved in efforts to overthrow the controversial leader.

The emails, which have been dubbed ‘LeniLeaks’ online, purportedly show supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo calling for rallies against Duterte’s administration.

Those involved in the exchanges, which were posted online by bloggers, were Filipino-American members of a Yahoo! group called Global Filipino Diaspora Council, which is allegedly plotting to oust Duterte.

Billionaire philanthropist Loida Nicolas-Lewis and her sister, former Commission on Filipinos Overseas Chair Imelda “Mely” Nicolas, were both reportedly involved in the exchanges.

“[Duterte] asked for an extension of another six months. Extension denied! Join Duterte Resign Movement,” one of the emails from Nicolas-Lewis allegedly reads, referring to Duterte’s admission that he could not solve the country’s drug problem in six months, as previously promised.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said on Monday that he is convinced Robredo is connected to the group.

On Sunday, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. called the allegations against Robredo “serious” during a podcast of presidential communications secretary Martin Andanar.

“I need to look into it, this looks like a serious matter that needs an in-depth probe,” Esperon said, as quoted by CNN Philippines.

However, GMA News quoted Esperon as saying that a discussion of the emails is not on the agenda for the first Cabinet meeting of 2017.

“We have a Cabinet meeting. It happens that it is not one of the matters to be taken up. That just tells you that we have other more important matters [to discuss],” Esperon told reporters. He did state, however, that the administration would look into the emails at some point.

Robredo denied the allegations in an interview transcript released by her office on Monday. She went on to slam Justice Secretary Aguirre for previously accusing her of staying in Lewis’ house during her recent trip to the US. Though she admitted that Lewis supported her during her campaign for Congress in 2013, she said she has not heard from her since.

Duterte has come under fire since taking office in May of 2016 on a promise to wipe out drugs and dealers in the country.

His controversial ‘war on drugs’ has so far led to the death of almost 6,000 people, according to statistics released by the national police in December. Most of those were reportedly killed in vigilante or extrajudicial killings, while others lost their lives in police operations.

Duterte’s campaign has been sharply criticized by the US, the European Union, and the United Nations. The president has lashed out at each of his critics, calling President Barack Obama a “son of a bi**h/whore” in September. He also gave the EU a “f**k you,” telling the bloc it is only criticizing his war on drugs in “atonement” for its own sins, and called UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a “devil.” </s> President Rodrigo Duterte is not cowed by the alleged conspiracy to remove him from power after he was informed of the “#LeniLeaks” controversy.

“I wish them all the success,” Duterte was quoted as saying by Communications Secretary Martin Andanar.

Andanar said the President was informed of the alleged leaked emails calling for his resignation at the sidelines of the Cabinet meeting in Malacañang on Monday.

#LeniLeaks went viral on the internet after Vice President Leni Robredo’s critics on Facebook spread screenshots of supposed emails from Robredo’s known supporters calling for Duterte’s resignation and for his ouster.

READ: ‘I am not a part of any plot to oust Duterte’—Robredo

Another viral post showed a purported email from the Office of the Vice President’s social media unit urging its trolls to launch a counteroffensive against Duterte, the Robredo’s critics, and defeated vice presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos.

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said the ouster plots against the Chief Executive were not discussed during the Cabinet meeting.

“We have other more important matters…This should not be the flavor of the day or the month since this is just something that we already know,” Esperon said.

“The best way to address this is to show that we are effective in anti-drugs, that we could address the problems that they are concerned with,” he added. CDG/rga

READ: Drilon on alleged plan to unseat Duterte: Just crap </s> The alleged plot to unseat President Rodrigo Duterte being attributed to Vice President Leni Robredo showed how “twisted and paranoid” this administration has become, an opposition lawmaker said.

“’LeniLeaks’ again show us how twisted and paranoid the demigods under the Duterte administration has become,” Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin said in a statement on Monday.

Villarin, an ally of Robredo, criticized the administration for spreading “hateful rumors” only to cover up their own fears.

“Why burden the public with hateful rumors? What good will it bring to put down a good person except to assuage their own fears and insecurities,” Villarin said.

Villarin appealed to the administration to call for unity of principle and decency during the new year.

“Let the new year be a chance for our country to be united along principles of decency and tolerance, not drown by lies and deceit,” Villarin said.

Robredo became a subject of online backlash after her rabid online critics and trolls on Facebook spread screenshots of supposed emails from Robredo’s known supporters calling for Duterte’s resignation and protests against the President’s support for the hero’s burial of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Another viral post showed an email from the Office of the Vice President’s social media unit urging its trolls to launch a counteroffensive against Duterte; social media personalities who were Robredo’s rabid critics; and defeated vice presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos, who filed an electoral protest against Robredo.

While the Office of the Vice President has not yet issued a statement about it, Robredo denied being part of any ouster moves against Duterte.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said he has asked National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. to investigate the alleged ouster plot.

Robredo had resigned from the Cabinet after she was ordered by Duterte to desist from attending Cabinet meetings due to irreconcilable differences.

Duterte later said he asked Robredo to stop attending the meetings over allegations that she joined protests against him, an accusation the vice president vehemently denied.

Robredo has criticized Duterte’s support for the burial of the dictator Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, as well as the administration’s bloody war on drugs, which has claimed over 6,000 lives already, including those killed in the crossfire. JE </s> An opposition lawmaker from the Liberal Party on Monday denied that the alleged “LeniLeaks” controversy is a plot of Vice President Leni Robredo to unseat President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a statement, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said a “plain reading” of the email thread that went viral “does not manifest a design to destabilize the government or oust President Duterte.”

But the controversy has become a tool for the administration to censure any forms of dissent, Lagman said.

Robredo became a subject of online backlash after her rabid online critics and trolls on Facebook spread screenshots of supposed emails from Robredo’s known supporters calling for Duterte’s resignation and protests against the President’s support for the hero’s burial of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Another viral post showed an alleged email from the Office of the Vice President’s social media unit urging its trolls to launch a counteroffensive against Duterte, social media personalities who were Robredo’s rabid critics, and defeated vice presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos, who filed an electoral protest against Robredo.

Lagman said the alleged emails were part of the exercise of freedom of expressions as protected by the Bill of Rights and an important part of democracy.

Lagman said the emails only suggest resignation and not any radical ouster plot to end Duterte’s term.

“While some of the emails may suggest the resignation of Duterte for an erratic decision favoring the burial of the late dictator Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani and for failure to solve the drug menace, they express honest opinions and do not recommend any radical action or upheaval to pre-terminate Duterte’s incumbency,” Lagman said.

Lagman said “LeniLeaks” only shows the administration’s imagined fear of an impeachment or ouster plot being used to justify censorship of any form of dissent.

“If the President’s men believe that Duterte is rendering fealty to his mandate, then their phobia of his impending ouster is grossly misplaced and is conveniently used as a pretext to discourage and censure critical dissent,” Lagman said.

 READ: ‘Duterte ouster plot’ shows how admin is ‘twisted, paranoid’—solon

While the Office of the Vice President has not yet issued a statement about it, Robredo denied being part of any ouster moves against Duterte.

READ: I am not a part of any plot to oust Duterte’—Robredo

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said he has asked National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. to investigate the alleged ouster plot.

Robredo resigned from the Cabinet after she was ordered by Duterte to desist from attending Cabinet meetings due to irreconcilable differences.

Duterte later said he asked Robredo to stop attending the meetings following allegations Robredo had joined protests against Duterte, an accusation the vice president denied.

Robredo has criticized Duterte’s support for the burial of Marcos at the Libingan, as well as the administration’s bloody war on drugs, which has claimed over 6,000 lives. IDL/rga </s> President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday assured Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo that there was no plot to steal the vice presidency from her.

In an interview during the groundbreaking ceremony for the planned Bicol International Airport in Legazpi City, the President said Robredo, who is from Bicol, would keep her post until the last day of her term.

“I will assure Leni and the rest of the Bicol region that you will have her until the very end of her term,” Duterte told reporters.

“There is no such thing as removing of a vice president,” the President added.

Duterte issued the statement when asked about Robredo’s claim that there was a plan to steal her position following her resignation as housing chief.

Robredo claimed her resignation from the Cabinet was due to the Executive branch’s apparent lack of support for housing initiatives and the President’s order that she stop attending Cabinet meetings. </s> President Rodrigo Duterte has shrugged off a supposed ouster plot against him that is allegedly organized by and linked to Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo’s allies.

In an interview on Tuesday, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said that Duterte, at the sidelines of Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, had been able to discuss with him, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and Information and Communications Technology Rodolfo Salalima a supposed leaked conversation, now dubbed as “LeniLeaks.”

During their talk, Andanar added, the President had wished his opponents “success” in destabilizing him.

“I wish them all the success,” Duterte told Robredo’s supporters planning to kick him out of office as quoted by Andanar.

The alleged ouster plot came to fore after a blogger posted over the weekend emails that allegedly showed exchanges between some supporters of the Liberal Party such as immigration lawyer Ted Laguatan and certain individuals in the Philippines.

The emails were supposedly posted on the Yahoo! group Global Filipino Diaspora Council, whose members reportedly include Loida Nicolas-Lewis.

Lewis has denied concocting a plan to remove Duterte from Malacañang even as she clarified that her call for Duterte to quit was based on the President’s promise that he would resign if drugs are still rampant six months after his inauguration in June last year.

Esperon has said “Lenileaks” was not on the agenda of the Cabinet meeting on Monday because Duterte and the secretaries had more important matters to discuss.

“We have other more important matters… This should not be the flavor of the day or the month since this is just something that we already know,” Esperon said.

In a news conference, Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the “LeniLeaks” issue was not taken up during Monday’s Cabinet meeting.

“No. There was no discussion there and if there was any pull-aside, I was not privy to it,” Abella told reporters. “It was not mentioned at all. Not during the Cabinet meeting.”

But Andanar, in another interview, said he discussed the “LeniLeaks” with the President together with Esperon and Salalima.

“It was discussed in the Cabinet pull-aside. This was when we pulledthe President to one side and we talked to the President privately,” Andanar told ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC). </s> Vice President Leni Robredo talks with President Rodrigo Duterte during a courtesy call to Malacañang in July. Photo from Robredo's Twitter page

Malacanang is investigating the alleged "LeniLeaks" controversy that shows a supposed plot by supporters of Vice President Leni Robredo to discredit and eventually unseat President Rodrigo Duterte.

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and online forensics experts are verifying social media rumors that Robredo's supporters are part of a "restricted" Yahoo group that allegedly drew plans to denigrate Duterte in the international scene.

He noted that at least one Inquirer columnist, Randy David, mentioned in the conversation thread had already denied being part of any ouster plot.

"Number one order of the day is to check the veracity of the document; kung ito ba talaga ay bonafide Yahoo conversation, at number two, kung bonafide siya, kung ito ba talagang personalities ay kasama nga, kung sila ba talaga iyun," Andanar told radio DZMM.

"This is a process na ang makakaalam lang nito, ang makakapag-imbestiga ay mga online forensic experts. Makikipag-tulungan na rin ang Yahoo."

(The number one order of the day is to check the veracity of the document, if this was a bonafide Yahoo conversation, and number two; if the personalities tagged in the controversy were really involved. This is a process that can only be verified by online forensic experts. Yahoo will cooperate with the probe.)

The hashtag #LeniLeaks dominated social media over the weekend after several bloggers claimed that some of Robredo's Filipino-American supporters and aides are plotting to overthrow the Duterte government, as well as discredit former Senator Bongbong Marcos, who has a pending electoral protest against the Vice President.

Andanar said the conversation thread showed more of a media strategy to counter the negative publicity being hurled at Vice President Robredo while undermining Marcos.



He said that while the bloggers' unfounded claim must be "taken with a grain of salt," the administration cannot readily dismiss any threat to unseat Duterte.

"It's a serious matter sapagkat may nakasulat doon kung paano nila papag-resign-in si President Duterte... Siyempre, that does not sit well with us in the government because any move to oust the President is not good and it is definitely illegal," he said.

(It is a serious matter because it is written there how they will force Duterte to resign. Of course, that does not sit well with us in the government because any move to oust the President is not good and it is definitely illegal.)

"I'm a member of the Duterte Cabinet. I will not take this lightly, ganoon din po si (and so will) Secretary Jun Esperon," he added.

Andanar acknowledged that Robredo herself may have no hand in the alleged ouster plan because she was not in the conversation thread. "It's possible she didn't know," he said.

He said he will raise the issue during Duterte's meeting with his Cabinet on Monday.

Robredo has repeatedly denied joining any move calling for the President's ouster.

On Monday, her spokesperson, Georgina Hernandez, denied that Robredo is part of the aforementioned Yahoo! group.

"No, she is not part of that public Yahoo! group," she said

Hernandez said Robredo had "very limited time to really look into the matter," but their camp maintains that the alleged plot to unseat the president is not directly connected to their office.

"She has been in the field, she has been in different places in Bicol and Marinduque, but she has heard about this but only in bits and pieces and as she clearly said, this is really independent, this is not directly linked to the Office of the Vice President," she said.

Hernandez also asserted that the aforementioned conversation thread was public and "there should be no malice put into the information that was brought out in social media." </s> “They are just making noise,” Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said on the alleged move by rich Filipino-American critics to oust President Rodrigo Duterte.

Members of the Global Filipino Diaspora Council (GFDC), including billionaire philanthropist Loida Nicolas-Lewis and her sister, former Commission on Filipino Overseas chairwoman Imelda “Mely” Nicolas, were reportedly pushing for Vice President Leni Robredo to become president in a “conspiracy” to oust Duterte.

In one of leaked emails dated Dec. 4, 2016 which was first posted online by a blogger, Lewis supposedly told GFDC members that the only way to fight an “evil plot” to unseat Robredo is to call for Duterte’s resignation.

“After all, he promised to resign in six months if he has not solved the drug epidemic in the Philippines,” the leaked email stated.

Aguirre said “she is calling for the Vice President to become president. She is calling for the resignation of the President. She is a dreamer. There are only few who are making a noise although they have money.”

The justice chief believed that both Robredo and Senator Leila De Lima, the staunchest critic of Duterte, stayed at Lewis’ home during their visit in the US last year.

READ: ‘I am not a part of any plot to oust Duterte’—Robredo

As far as the DOJ is concerned, he said there is no investigation being conducted.

However, he said he is not sure if the National Security Agency (NSA) is doing its own investigation./rga </s> LENI Robredo is making a scene. She is accusing the President and Bongbong Marcos of plotting to steal the vice presidency from her.

She is saying this after she was constructively dismissed from the Cabinet. She resigned after being told

 through text, upon instructions of the President, to desist from attending Cabinet meetings.

There are several angles being floated around on the real reason of her departure from the Cabinet.

There are those who say she was dismissed for being a non-performer. Others point out the irreconcilable differences that she had with the President and her very vocal opposition to his stand on many issues, including the burial of Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, the war on drugs, the President’s attack on Senator Leila de Lima, and the planned restoration of the death penalty.

Yet, there are also those who floated the intrigue that she was leaking confidential information discussed during Cabinet meetings, and that she refused to cooperate in the investigation of the Yolanda housing anomalies.

 But the most eyebrow-raising is her allegation that there are attempts to steal the vice presidency from her.

She is presenting herself as being the object of political harassment, a target of a sinister plot to oust her as Vice President and replace her with Bongbong Marcos. Her supporters and partymates at the Liberal Party are quick to deploy as a battle cry the hashtag #ProtectLeni and #DefendDemocracy, even as they once again paint the return of the Marcoses to power as the convenient bogeyman.

But it is perhaps important for us to ask Leni Robredo this question: How exactly do you steal the vice presidency?

To allege stealing a position presupposes that it will be through extra-constitutional means.

However, it could never be by a coup, since such usually targets the head of state or government, and not his spare tire. In fact, it is even more plausible for a Vice President from the opposition ranks like Mrs. Robredo, to be the one to plot and steal the presidency, and not the other way around.

The only way Mrs. Robredo can lose her seat is through constitutional means.

She can be unseated through impeachment. However, as of now, there is no ground to impeach her considering that a less than stellar performance at the HUDCC is not an impeachable offense. Her political difference with the President, as long as only expressed but not used to undermine him, does not constitute betrayal of public trust or treason.

She could however lose her seat through an electoral protest.

Bongbong Marcos has filed an electoral protest against her, and the case is now with the Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, or PET. Marcos has alleged massive electoral fraud during the May 2016 elections, where he claimed to have been a victim of a combination of electronic and conventional forms of cheating.

Marcos alleges that the existence of the illegal fourth server, which was admitted even by Smartmatic, together with traditional methods of pre-shading of ballots that allegedly happened in many areas in the ARMM, may have enabled Mrs. Robredo to steal his votes from him.

Evidence suggests statistically improbable zero-votes for all other candidates except for the Liberal Party tandem of Roxas and Robredo in many areas in the country, particularly in the ARMM. There was also a suspiciously high level of under-votes for vice president, leading one to suspect a more sinister electronic tampering of results.

But all of these are allegations that still need to be proven in a proper proceeding. The camp of Bongbong Marcos has already submitted thousands of pages of evidence to back his allegations, and these have yet to be appreciated by the PET. A recount has not yet been ordered, and when commenced, would take a long time in a proceeding which will be open to all parties, and where Mrs. Robredo’s lawyers would be present.

Thus, it is totally irresponsible for Mrs. Robredo to accuse President Duterte, or his allies, working with Bongbong Marcos, to steal the vice presidency. Raising this amounts to a frontal attack on the PET, as it would impugn the integrity of its members, and the whole process.

The camp of Mrs. Robredo has already floated irresponsible allegations in social media. Several days ago, Robredo partisans already made accusations that Governor Imee Marcos had a meeting with two unidentified Supreme Court justices abroad.

Mrs. Robredo has to be reminded that being unseated through an electoral protest is not stealing. On the contrary, it makes her the thief of a post that is not supposed to be hers.

She has to realize that the best way to defend democracy is to stop undermining it by casting aspersions on democratic institutions and processes, and for her to support the recount. Only a recount would tell us if the vice presidency is rightfully hers, or was indeed stolen, not by Bongbong Marcos, but by her.
The cabinet of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte investigates an email leak that allegedly indicates the involvement of the vice president Leni Robredo in attempts to overthrow Duterte.