Leviste Slams NBI Over 'Invented' Human Trafficking Complaint

Batangas First District Representative Leandro Leviste on Friday lashed out at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for pursuing qualified human trafficking charges against him, accusing the agency of inventing nonsense. This developed after the NBI said it would file a complaint against Leviste and former Negros Oriental congressman Jacinto Paras over their alleged honeypot scheme to frame Executive Secretary Ralph Recto. "NBI: National Bureau of INVENTION, they are inventing nonsense using taxes while the country is sinking. Our country is pitiful," Leviste said in a Facebook post on Friday. This is the first statement from Leviste following the charge set to be lodged against him. During a rescue operation of human trafficking victims, the NBI reportedly found some women who were supposedly recruited by Leviste and Paras to frame Recto for committing lascivious acts with them. The NBI then issued a subpoena against Leviste and Paras. Neither of them personally showed up before the bureau, opting to have their respective counsels respond instead. Both of them denied any involvement in the matter. Leviste, as well as his mother Senator Loren Legarda Leviste, have both reportedly left the country amid an ongoing Ombudsman probe against them. In a separate controversy, the mother-son lawmakers are suspected of committing graft and plunder after the younger Leviste's renewable energy firm allegedly failed to deliver solar power to communities, as stipulated in its congressional franchise. Legarda flew to France to seek medical treatment, while Leviste supposedly flew to the same country.