Lorenzana not aware of foreign intel info on alleged Duterte ouster

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JOAN BONDOC

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Thursday he has no knowledge of the supposed “sympathetic” country providing intelligence information to President Rodrigo Duterte about the alleged destabilization plot of his critics.

“I’m not aware of that,” he told INQUIRER.net when asked if he knew about the foreign intelligence information pertaining to an ouster plot against the President.

In a televised interview with Chief Presidential Legal Adviser Salvador Panelo on Tuesday, Duterte claimed that a foreign country supplied him information that the opposition, the Magdalo group and communists led by Jose Ma. Sison have “combined” destabilization efforts against him.

“I have the evidence. I have the conversation provided by a foreign country sympathetic to us. We don’t have that sophistication,” he said.

When the defense chief was asked if he knew which country is supposedly supplying intelligence information to the President about his critics, he answered: “No.”

Duterte has repeatedly claimed that he is being targeted by the US Central Intelligence Agency, which was also dismissed by Lorenzana.

“Sabi ng CIA, hindi daw nila gawa ‘yun (The CIA said that’s not their doing),” he said.

The defense chief earlier denied the allegations about the CIA at a budget hearing at the House of Representatives two weeks ago.

Lorenzana said the President, an avid reader, could have only read about the CIA operations in books.

“I think kasi the President loves to read books. He reads a lot of books. Whenever he has a new book that is new and good, he gives us copies of the book,” he said. /je