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Trillanes wants Andanar, Aguirre probed for spreading 'fake news'
Published March 7, 2017 7:31pm
By KATHRINA CHARMAINE ALVAREZ, GMA News
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Tuesday filed a resolution to investigate "misleading" information peddled by government officials, as he cited the supposed "fake news" of Communication Secretary Martin Andanar and Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.
In Senate Resolution No. 315, Trillanes said it is the responsibility of Congress to ensure that government officials "will not abuse the platform accorded to them by spreading propaganda and lies."
"It is the responsibility of Congress...[to] ensure that no government official would be using or taking advantage of their positions, whether deliberately or not, to disseminate fake, distorted, baseless or fabricated and/or erroneous news and false information and/or to mislead the public," Trillanes said.
The Senate investigation, he added, aims to ensure "that government officials will not abuse the platform accorded to them by spreading propaganda and lies."
Trillanes cited the earlier claim of Andanar that reporters who covered the press conference of retired Davao cop Arturo "Arthur" Lascañas were offered $1,000.
Andanar refused to apologize after the Senate media challenged him to do so if he cannot prove his claim.
"This claim is unfounded, unverified and was clearly used to malign and discredit the undersigned and the members of the Senate Press Corps and, ultimately, to deliberately divert the issue from the President's alleged involvement in the Davao Death Squad," Trillanes said.
Trillanes also pointed to the earlier statements of Aguirre that an inmate linked him to the stabbing incident on high-profile New Bilibid Prisons inmate Jaybee Sebastian.
Aguirre said then that he was not inclined to order an investigation on the incident.
Trillanes also cited Aguirre's accusation that he, along with fellow Senators Francis Pangilinan and Leila de Lima, are devising a plot to implicate him in the P50-million bribery scandal at the Bureau of Immigration (BI) involving businessman Jack Lam. Aguirre has since apologized.
He also included in his resolution Aguirre's statement that former Senator Jamby Madrigal and Laguna Rep. Marlyn Alonte-Naguiat offered P100 million to high-profile inmates to retract their testimonies against De Lima.
The informant of Aguirre has since withdrawn her claim against Madrigal, while Alonte has vehemently denied the accusation against her. —JST, GMA News.
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