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.”

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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.

The trolls dubbed the viral posts #LeniLeaks.”

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

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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

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