Lorenzana denies being spy for US

He has stayed for more than a decade in the United States but Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana has made clear that he did not turn into an American spy.

Lorenzana said President Duterte was just joking when he claimed that he worked as an “agent” of the United States. (Related story on Page 12)

“That was meant to be just a joke – CIA agent daw,” Lorenzana said in a text message to reporters in a bid to clarify the President’s recent remarks he was part of the US Central Intelligence Agency.

Lorenzana, a retired military officer, explained the President made the spy joke about him, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, former Foreign Affairs Perfecto Yasay, and others since they started working in the Cabinet last year. “That was because I stayed in DC for 14 years from 2002-2016,” the Defense chief said.

Lorenzana explained that he worked at the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. as a “diplomat,” from being a defense attaché to a special representative for veterans affairs.

“We at the Cabinet do not take those remarks by the President seriously and neither should you,” he added.

Last Tuesday night, the President claimed that Lorenzana was an “agent” of the US after staying there for a long period. He even told Lorenzana to tell Washington that he does “not hate America.”

“He has been in America for so long. I know he’s an agent but that’s okay,” Duterte said in Filipino during the Department of Justice anniversary rites last Tuesday night.