MANILA, Philippines — Journalist Ellen Tordesillas on Saturday evening said she does not have cancer and has not been asking sources for money as President Rodrigo Duterte claimed Friday on a religious TV show.
The president said on Pastor Apollo Quiboloy's show "Give Us This Day" on Friday that Tordesillas has been sick and has been continually asking for money. He did not give the source of the supposed information or proof of his allegation.
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Tordesillas, president of VERA Files, sent a statement to media on Saturday, saying she was shocked by the misinformation from Duterte and that she no longer has cancer and has been cancer-free for a long time.
"Kahit noong ginagamot ang aking kanser noong 2003, hindi ako humingi ng pera sa ibang tao. Ang tumulong sa akin ay si Jake Macasaet, ang yumaong publisher ng Ang Pahayagang Malaya, kung saan ako nagtatrabaho nuon," she said.
(Even when my cancer was being treated in 2003, I did not ask other people for money. It was Jake Macasaet, the late publisher of Ang Pahayagang Malaya, where I was working then, who helped me.)
She said that two senators also wrote the Philippine General Hospital to credit the cost of her hospital room to their Priority Development Assistance Fund allocation. "They did not give me any cash," she added in Filipino, saying also that she did not ask them for the assistance.
The Supreme Court in 2013 ruled that the PDAF system is unconstitutional for allowing legislators to identify specific cases and projects for their allocations even after the national budget has been enacted. The court said then that provisions allowing personal, lump sum allocations to legislators from which they draw funds for specific projects that they themselves have determined were illegal.
"May dalawang politiko na nagpadala ng cash sa akin. Ibinigay ko ang pera sa PGH Medical Foundation na tumutulong sa mga mahihirap na pasyente sa PGH. Ipinadala ko sa dalawang politiko ang resibo," she also said.
(Two politicians sent me cash. I gave the money to the PGH Medical Foundation which helps indigent patients at the PGH. I sent the two politicians the receipts.)
She added that she prays for the country and that "truth will prevail in the minds of all of us, including President Duterte."
'She is still alive up to now'
On Friday, Duterte said that Tordesillas had been asking for money for a long time for her cancer treatment "but she is still alive up to now," remarking that he would pray for something other than her recovery.
"When we pray, you pray for her, for her recovery. But my prayer would be different ha. And you know, what you are thinking, probably that you'd pay — you'd pray would be exactly the opposite of that and that is my fervent…" the official transcript from the Presidential Communications Operations Office quotes the president as saying.
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Tordesillas is among the journalists named in a Palace diagram of journalists and groups allegedly conspiring to oust Duterte.
The supposed conspiracy, which the Palace said it does not need to prove exists, involves the "Ang Totoong Narcolist" videos that were posted anonymously and that accuse Duterte and his family of involvement in illegal drugs.
Peter Joemel Advincula, the man claiming to be the "Bikoy" character in the videos, initially held a hadtily-called press conference to say the claims on the videos are true.
Less than a month later, the police presented him in a press conference where he said the Liberal Party is behind the videos, a charge the party denied, stressing it was not even included in the Palace's diagram.
A government investigation into Advincula's new claims is underway.
Duterte also said last month that Tordesillas is "in every inch a prostitute."
In response, Tordesillas said: "Since Duterte does not have evidence to support his silly matrix, he is now resorting to vulgarity—the only language he knows."
The Duterte administration has repreatedly said it upholds press freedom but has also been working to discredit journalists and outlets that are perceived to be critical of the government.
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