MANILA — Malacañang said on Wednesday President Rodrigo Duterte stood by his statement that the woman he saw in a sex video with her alleged lover was Senator Leila de Lima, even after his allies, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, had backed out of their previous stand to show the video in the hearing of the House committee on justice.

“At this stage, opinions regarding the matter should be left alone and I mean after all, a number of concerns have been raised regarding the matter so let’s leave it as it is,” said Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella in a briefing in Malacañang on Wednesday.

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In several public speeches, Mr. Duterte claimed that he saw the De Lima video, which has been the subject of rumors during the election campaign, and prompted him to say: “She was not only screwing her driver, she was screwing the nation.”

In a speech in Malacañang last September 26, Duterte said: “Every time I watch the video, I lose my appetite. Only people who will fall for her are … I am not a guard or a motorcycle cop or convict,” said

Asked if Duterte was standing by his remarks that he saw de Lima in the sex video, Abella said: “That is his statement.”

When asked if the President could have been misled in believing the authenticity of the sex video, Abella said: “I’m not aware. I cannot have any opinion on the matter whether he was misled or not. Let’s leave it at that. “

Asked if Duterte was standing by his remarks that he saw de Lima on the sex video, Abella said: “That is his statement.”

An independent review of the tape, including that by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, showed the clip had been taken from a porn site and featured another woman, not the senator. With lady senators and representatives protesting the video showing as an affront against women, Aguirre and Alvarez had both backtracked from their previous insistence on the need to play the video in public. Both officials have left the decision of showing the video to Rep. Rey Umali, chairman of the House committee on justice.

Earlier, Aguirre and Alvarez supported the showing of the sex video to establish an illicit relationship between De Lima and her former driver, Ronnie Dayan, whom President Duterte has accused of collecting drug protection money for De Lima from the Bilibid’s maximum security prisoners. SFM

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