00:00Today on Rappler
00:08Rappler's sister company, The Nerve, finds coordinated online attacks against Senator
00:18Risa Ontiveros after a Qibuloy witness accused her of bribery.
00:22The Marcos government wants 81-year-old Prudential Calubid returned to jail
00:26even after the Court of Appeals ruled it as a case of mistaken identity.
00:30Makati City Mayor Nancy Binai flags her sister Abby Binai's last-minute subway deal worth 9 billion pesos.
00:36South Korea prosecutors renewed a request to detain former President Yoon Suk-yeol.
00:41And Filipino pole vaulter EJ Obiana's planned global pole vault event in Makati
00:45is finally pushing through after a year-long delay.
00:50An analysis by Rappler's sister company, The Nerve,
00:53finds coordinated online attacks against Senator Risa Ontiveros over the past week.
00:58Published on Sunday, July 6, the study found that pro-Duterte accounts on Facebook took turns posting a video
01:04in which a former Senate probe witness made grave accusations against Ontiveros.
01:08On June 24, the page Pagtanggol Valiente posted a video in which Michael Maurilio said Ontiveros
01:14had bribed him to testify against televangelist and trafficking suspect Apollo Qibuloy.
01:18Within hours, at least two other influential pro-Duterte pages re-uploaded the video.
01:23Copy-pasted posts soon turned up on other pro-Duterte pages.
01:27The same claims then made it to pages promoting members of the Duterte family,
01:31including Vice President Sara and Kitty Duterte.
01:33The post showed signs of coordinated behavior.
01:36In one instance, three pages, each with tens of thousands of followers,
01:39uploaded the same video with identical captions.
01:42At least 20 posts across different accounts carried the same image and caption,
01:46calling the senator the legend of lies.
01:49These posts drew a total of at least 4,400 interactions.
01:52Ontiveros has filed cyber libel complaints against Maurilio and others who spread the video.
01:57She said Maurilio sent distress calls to her office on the days right before the video came out.
02:02She later shared screenshots of her team's correspondence with Maurilio.
02:06Maurilio had testified to having been abused within Qibuloy's religious sect.
02:10Ontiveros said he might be under pressure to recant his testimony.
02:13The Marcos government wants 81-year-old Prudencio Kalubid Jr. returned to jail,
02:20saying he does look like the suspect a court ruled he had been mistaken for.
02:24The Office of the Solicitor General is appealing Kalubid's release,
02:27which was ordered by the Court of Appeals on June 28.
02:30It says the photo in Kalubid's Facebook page, quote,
02:33bore significant similarities to the wanted suspect.
02:36The court had granted Kalubid's petition for writ of habeas corpus,
02:39saying his arrest and detention were a case of mistaken identity.
02:42Kalubid was arrested in Olongapo City last December on an arrest warrant for a person
02:47with the same name who was wanted for serious crimes.
02:50Kalubid and his family show documents to prove he was a different person.
02:54But the police arrested him anyway, and he ended up jailed for six months.
02:58The suspect the police are looking for was a consultant for the National Democratic Front
03:02and has been missing since his abduction in 2006.
03:05A retired technician, Kalubid suffers from chronic kidney disease, arthritis, and gout,
03:10all of which he endured while in detention.
03:12Human Rights Group Karapatan, says the OSG's motion for reconsideration, quote,
03:17harps on technicalities and merely repeats the PNPCIDG's false claims
03:21that it had conducted extensive investigation and intelligence gathering
03:25to verify Kalubid's identity.
03:29Makati City Mayor Nancy Binay raises concern about a last-minute P9 billion settlement deal
03:35signed by her sister and predecessor, Abby Binay,
03:38with a private contractor of the Makati subway project.
03:41Nancy describes the deal as a, quote,
03:43Midnight Settlement, as it was signed on June 23,
03:46just seven days before Abby's term as mayor ended.
03:49Under the deal, the Makati City government would fully own the subway project and all its assets.
03:54For this, the city must pay P9 billion within 90 days
03:57after the Singapore International Arbitration Center, or SIAC, issues a consent award.
04:03If the city fails to pay on time, it could face extra penalties of P30 million
04:07or P1.7 billion plus interest.
04:10A certification from the City Budget Department on July 3 confirmed
04:14that Makati's 2025 budget does not allow for this payment.
04:18Nancy also criticizes the past administration for approving the deal
04:21without consulting the public, getting budget approval, or due diligence.
04:26She has since instructed the City Legal Department to take action
04:29to challenge the settlement at the SIIC.
04:31She also promised to seek legal remedies to hold those responsible for the deal accountable.
04:36In a statement on Monday, July 7,
04:38Abby denied her sister's allegations that the deal was a midnight agreement.
04:42She said it was a calculated move meant to prevent larger financial losses,
04:46increase the city's assets, and ensure long-term financial stability.
04:52South Korean special prosecutors on Sunday, July 6,
04:55renewed their request to detain former President Yoon Suk-yoo.
04:58This a day after they questioned him about his declaration of martial law last December.
05:03Yoon is on trial for insurrection over his martial law order.
05:06He was arrested in January but was released after 52 days on a technical issue.
05:11A spokesperson for the prosecutors did not explain why they asked to detain Yoon,
05:15adding they would answer the question in court proceedings.
05:18Yoon's lawyer said the prosecutors had no credible evidence and his legal team would argue in court
05:23that the request for his arrest is unreasonable.
05:26Yoon was accused of using presidential guards to block his arrest in January.
05:30The Constitutional Court removed him from office in April,
05:32confirming his impeachment by Parliament over the martial law attempt.
05:38Filipino pole vaulter E.J. Obiena's plan to host a world-class pole vault event in the Philippines
05:43will finally push through.
05:45Obiena announces the Atletang Ayala World Pole Vault Challenge
05:48will take place at the Ayala Triangle Gardens in Makati from September 20 to 21.
05:53He says,
05:54Hopefully, this is just going to be a spark to get that engine going
05:58and maybe get more international competitions in the country.
06:01Sanctioned by the World Athletics and Philippine Athletics Track and Field Association,
06:06the event will happen exactly a year after it was first planned.
06:09It was originally set for September 20 last year at the same venue,
06:13but was postponed because of Bienes' Sainte's spine injury which forced him to cut his 2024 season short.
06:19He now says he is eager to perform in front of a big hometown crowd
06:22like when he won his first SEA Games Gold in 2019 in New Clark City, Tarlupk.
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