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Police have launched a manhunt for Peter Joemel Advincula, alias “Bikoy,” who claims to be behind a series of online videos accusing the President’s family of accepting drug money.
“The manhunt operation is underway to find him and to serve the pending warrants of arrest against Advincula, who surfaced before the Integrated Bar of the Philippines as ‘Bikoy,’” said Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Oscar Albayalde.
Albayalde said Advincula has two pending arrest warrants issued by Benguet and Baguio courts in 2007 for estafa and large-scale illegal recruitment.
A new case—also for estafa–was filed against Advincula before the Justice Department Friday, for organizing a beauty pageant and then disappearing without distributing prizes for the winners and wages for the staff.
Complainant Arven E. Valmores of Ardeur World Marketing accused Advincula of using his corporate name and logo to promote the beauty pageant in 2018 without his consent.
“Respondent never attended the coronation night and became unreachable thereafter leaving all the members of the production staff unpaid,” Valmores said in his complaint.
He said the staff and the winners started communicating with him after Advincula disappeared, and that he had to shell out P304,422 to pay them.
“Respondent because unreachable and efforts to locate him to answer for his misrepresentation remained [unsuccessful] until recently… [when] he surfaced at the Integrated Bar of the Philippines,” the complainant said.
On Wednesday, Albayalde said Advincula apparently had a reputation of selling information—sometimes false–to law enforcement agencies.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra earlier advised Advincula to substantiate his accusations against the Duterte family before the proper authorities or face the consequences of his actions.
Meanwhile, Senator Panfilo Lacson said the PNP should dig deeper into Advincula’s links with police officials in 2016.
“Now that the PNP has confirmed my information on Bikoy’s contact with some senior PNP officials back in 2016, they must investigate further to determine the details of his engagement,” Lacson said on his Twitter account.
Earlier, Lacson said five to six ranking police officials were among the handlers of Advincula, who worked for them as an informant in 2016.
Some of these officials have retired, while others are still in top positions, Lacson said.
At the time, Advincula tried to link former President Benigno Aquino IV and his executive secretary, Paquito Ochoa, and former Interior secretary Manuel Roxas II and Senator Leila de Lima to the illegal drug trade.
Lacson said it was possible that police officials pursued this lead because they wanted to be in the good graces of incoming President Rodrigo Duterte.
Also on Friday, a party-list group filed a disbarment petition before the Supreme Court against two officials of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) for allowing its office in Ortigas, Pasig City to be used as the venue of Advincula’s press conference.
The Kabalikat Party-list, led by Tomas Jose C. Cabrido, named Abdiel Dan Elijah S. Fajardo, in his capacity as president of the IBP, and lawyer Domingo Egon Q. Cayosa, in his capacity as vice chairman and incoming president of the organization, as respondents.
“It is respectfully submitted that respondents are guilty of the instant administrative charges because of their conduct which constitutes ‘counselling’ or ‘abetting’ Advincula in committing an illegal act,” the complaint said.
“While Advincula was uttering seditious words or speech during his press conference, the logo of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines can be seen at the background, which creates the impression that the Integrated Bar of the Philippines is supporting Advincula’s press conference,” the complaint said.
The group cited a possible violation of Rule 1.02 of the Code of Professional Responsibility which states that “a lawyer shall not counsel or abet activities aimed at defiance of the law or at lessening confidence in the legal system.”
In a press conference on Monday, “Bikoy” admitted creating videos linking the family of President Duterte to the illegal drug trade.
Solicitor General Jose Calida on Thursday called on Fajardo to resign for using his position to pursue his personal political agenda.
In a statement, Calida said Fajardo “has turned the IBP into a highly politicized organization, when it should advance the rule of law and stand for truth and justice.”
“He is a disgrace to the IBP. He does not speak for all the IBP but his actions reflect badly on the organization and consequently, the legal profession,” Calida said.
Calida also echoed the stand of the IBP’s Davao City Chapter, which criticized Fajardo for allowing the organization’s national office to be used as a “staging area” for Advincula’s press conference. With PNA
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