A Manila court has found whistleblower Peter Joemel Advincula, who goes by the alias “Bikoy,” guilty of perjury in connection with claims he made against three lawyers in 2019.
The Manila Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 17 sentenced Advincula to an indeterminate penalty of three months and one day to one year and one day of imprisonment.
The case stemmed from the complaint of Jose Manuel Diokno, Theodore Te, and Lorenzo Tañada III in connection with a sworn statement Bikoy submitted on July 18, 2019 before prosecutors alleging that the three civil rights lawyers were part of a group known as “Project Sodoma.”
The group, Advincula claimed, plotted to commit sedition, libel, and cyber libel, among others.
Bikoy also claimed there was a meeting at the Ateneo de Manila University among the conspirators.
Diokno and Tañada said their presence at Ateneo was to attend a forum for senatorial candidates. They also denied meeting Advincula.
The statements became the basis for charges of sedition filed against members of the opposition, including the lawyers, at that time.
The criminal charges, however, were dismissed by the Department of Justice on January 27, 2020, with prosecutors noting that it was Advincula who was probably guilty of the crime of conspiracy to commit sedition.
“In this case, the totality of the prosecution evidence, when put under severe testing, amounts to proof beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of perjury. The witnesses who testified for the prosecution were able to sufficiently establish the falsehood of the accused’s statements,” the court said.