The real issue

Congratulations are in order for the National Bureau of Investigation’s swift action to track down and arrest someone it said was involved in the controversial “True Narcolist” videos. That was fast, wasn’t it? Roughly just a month from the time the first installment of the now-viral video series was uploaded on YouTube, the NBI had managed to uncover the uploader’s tracks, haul him in and file a case of “inciting to sedition” against him.

Let it not be said, given that impressive performance, that government agencies are inept, indifferent slowpokes. The government machinery can move quickly—if that is what the bosses want. Within hours of the arrest of one Rodel Jayme, for instance, the NBI appeared to have bonded with him so swimmingly that Jayme was already singing a familiar song, leading investigators and the curious public toward the direction of the opposition Liberal Party as supposedly the culprit behind the mysterious videos.

But there was a bit of a disappointment: The one arrested was not the elusive “Bikoy,” the hooded self-confessed former member of an illegal drug syndicate who talked on-camera about the Duterte family’s alleged involvement in the drug trade. Instead, Jayme was described as a 27-year-old blogger who created a website, metrobalita.net, that the NBI said was subsequently used to upload the Bikoy videos.

Still, Jayme was a catch, if only for his eagerness to tell a tale so tantalizing to the administration and its supporters. While denying any hand in producing or uploading the videos, Jayme clearly remembered being a volunteer of Liberal Party presidential candidate Mar Roxas in 2015. Jayme said it was a fellow Roxas volunteer, a “Maru or Mary Nguyen” (interesting name), who paid him P2,500 early this year to create the website. (Roxas and the LP have vigorously denied any hand in the videos.)

Jayme said he was cooperating with the NBI “because I do not have bad intentions against anyone, especially our President and his loved ones.” And while he feared for his life, he said he now felt safe in government custody—although it must be pointed out that the apparent thanks he got from the Department of Justice (DOJ) was an inciting to sedition charge for videos that, while imputing wrongdoing on the President’s family members, made no urging whatsoever, as far as one could tell, for the people to rise up against their government. So while Jayme may feel cozy under NBI detention, he needs a good, brave lawyer with a healthy sense of humor to boot to fight off the bizarre case against him.

In any case, the arrest of Jayme must have been seen as a very important achievement by the NBI that no less than DOJ chief Menardo Guevarra led the press conference. The DOJ and NBI are saddled with many other big cases crying out for resolution, but the matter of the “Bikoy” videos is evidently top priority for the country’s law-enforcement entities at present. But, just to be clear, not the grave allegations against the presidential son and various others; that is too trifling a matter compared to the truly consequential issue of who was insolent enough to dare level such accusations against the First Family.

The Philippines is no monarchy, and there are no lèse-majesté laws in this republic, but then there is Guevarra as the chief dispenser of justice no less, who thinks the “Bikoy” videos directed at President Duterte’s family are equivalent to “scurrilous libelous attacks against the government” that add up to sedition. A case could be made for cyberlibel, but the Supreme Court itself has said merely sharing or liking videos or other online content is not cyberlibel. Tough luck, then, for the rest of the country that believes the DOJ and NBI should be expending effort and taking a hard look elsewhere—not where the videos came from, for instance, but at what they actually say.

Late yesterday, a man named Peter Joemel Advincula surfaced on national TV and claimed to be the real Bikoy. He fears for his life, he said, but reiterated the explosive accusations made on the videos. The official script involving Jayme appears to be unraveling quickly, though forcing the real Bikoy out of hiding may, in fact, be the intended effect. What is sure at this point is that the NBI, DOJ and the full might of the administration will soon be running after Advincula, too—though that will not make the controversy disappear. How long, after all, will these state agencies pretend to be dumb and unable to see the real issue here—whether the truly frightening things the videos claim are true in the first place?