Lawyers Front for Leviste and Paras as Honeytrap Probe Widens

Lawyers for Batangas 1st District Rep. Leandro Leviste and former Negros Oriental Rep. Jacinto “Jing” Paras appeared Tuesday at the National Bureau of Investigation, submitted affidavits, invoked the right to remain silent and denied any role in an alleged honeytrap plot targeting Executive Secretary Ralph Recto.

The surface move leaves the larger machine untouched: an NBI investigation that began with a Malate hotel entrapment and has already named six Cabinet-level officials as intended victims, identified four lawyers from one Ortigas firm as script writers, and tied the scheme to a months-old Batangas political feud.

Lawyers Front for Clients Who Stayed Away

Gabrielle Rondain-Kapunan told reporters outside NBI-NCR that she had invoked Leviste’s right to remain silent. “We deny any involvement. Again, no comment,” she said. She confirmed affidavits were accepted and no reset was needed for the scheduled appearance.

Asked if Leviste had returned to the Philippines, she said she did not know. NBI Director Melvin Matibag had earlier confirmed Leviste left the country with his mother, Sen. Loren Legarda. Later reports placed them in France.

Paras sent lawyers Mark Tolentino and Ferdinand Topacio. They submitted a notarized affidavit. Tolentino acknowledged a 2022 movie-related business link with talent manager “Ken” but rejected any entrapment plan against Recto. He pointed instead to a separate 2025 Makati incident that “we cannot disclose yet.”

The Malate Hotel Bust That Started It

The case opened on July 28, 2026, when NBI-NCR agents ran an anti-trafficking entrapment at a five-star hotel in Malate. They arrested talent manager Ken (also identified in some reports as Lito de Guzman) and took five women into protective custody.

1. July 15, 2026: First face-to-face meeting; two lawyers present with Paras and Ken.
2. July 26, 2026: Second meeting; all four lawyers present to review statements.
3. July 28, 2026: Entrapment and arrest at the Malate hotel.
4. August 3, 2026: Original planned date for public release of affidavits and first payment tranche.
5. August 11, 2026: Lawyers appear after earlier no-shows and weather resets.

Ken told investigators Paras contacted him to recruit four women who would fabricate sworn statements accusing Recto of forcing them into sex and illegal drug use. Total payment offered: P5 million.

Payment Tranches and Fabricated Affidavits

According to Matibag, the schedule ran 30 percent on signing the affidavits (due August 3), 40 percent after a complaint was filed with prosecutors, and 30 percent held while the case proceeded. The women and manager would share the cut.

Ken said the lawyers introduced themselves as Leviste’s representatives. Two were senior named partners; two were newer associates. Matibag called the firm “big” with “big personalities” as clients and noted one of Leviste’s own counsels comes from the same office, calling it a red flag. The four lawyers face their own subpoenas for August 14.

Six Officials in the Crosshairs

Recto was the public focus, yet NBI statements list five additional intended victims of the same character-assassination method:

• Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla
• Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla
• Cabinet Secretary Benhur Abalos
• Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon
• Information and Communications Secretary Henry Aguda

Matibag described the scheme as “one of many” and warned that success would have opened the door to senators and others. He framed it as possible destabilization work, not a one-off grudge. Jonvic Remulla has said he is weighing human trafficking charges against Paras.

The underlying offenses sit under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act text and its later amendments, which the NBI used for the original hotel operation.

From House Floor Feud to NBI Subpoena

The personal temperature between Leviste and Recto, both Batangas political families, spiked in early May 2026. Leviste delivered a House privilege speech accusing Recto of corruption and vote-buying and calling for his removal. He later broadened the charge to cover colleagues across the chamber.

Recto pushed back hard, alleging Leviste had offered large sums in earlier meetings to sway political moves and ran troll operations. Palace spokesmen kept President Marcos outside the fight. The NBI probe now places that feud inside a concrete operational plan with money, women, lawyers and a calendar.

Denials Meet Claimed Viber Trails

The conversation was there. ‘Let’s proceed…’ that’s how it was. Eventually when we checked again, Cong. Jing Paras had deleted the messages.

Matibag said that after agents seized Ken’s phone under a cyber warrant. NBI authenticated the number as Paras’s. Matibag has called the evidence against Paras “as strong as Superman.” Tolentino answered that it was “even stronger than Batman,” then insisted Ken approached Paras first about financing a movie and that Paras declined.

On X, users immediately noted the deleted-message detail: forensic recovery often survives casual erasure, and the timing of the wipe after contact looked damning to many. Others treated Leviste’s foreign travel as strategic silence rather than coincidence. Tolentino’s movie-and-2025-Makati counter-narrative has circulated as the main defense line, yet Ken’s supplemental affidavit naming the four lawyers and supplying photos keeps the pressure on the legal side.

What We Know

• Arrest and protective custody of Ken and five women on July 28 after hotel entrapment.
• Authenticated Viber traffic between Ken and a number tied to Paras; later deletion noted.
• Payment structure and meeting dates corroborated by Ken’s statements to NBI and media.
• Four lawyers from one Ortigas firm photographically identified; subpoenas issued for August 14.

What’s Unconfirmed

• Direct documentary proof of Leviste wiring or authorizing the P5 million.
• Whether the 2025 Makati incident Tolentino referenced has any evidentiary link.
• Exact current location and return date of Leviste and Legarda.
• Whether additional targets beyond the six named will surface.

The same trafficking framework that produced the original arrest also supplies the investigative path forward. Agents follow the NBI assistance process for trafficking victims and coordinate through the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking. PCW FAQs on RA 9208 trafficking outline the exploitation elements that prosecutors will test against the fabricated-affidavit plan.

Silence as Strategy While the Circle Widens

Leviste’s camp has chosen affidavits and silence over personal appearance. Paras remains in the country and fights through counsel. The four lawyers have yet to answer. Matibag continues to press for face-to-face clarification, arguing social-media denials are insufficient.

What began as a single-target smear allegation now carries six named officials, a payment ledger, meeting logs, a law-firm trail and open talk of destabilization. The second-order cost is already visible: every new name raises the political price of the original Batangas feud and tests whether character-assassination machinery of this scale can still operate without leaving a recoverable forensic trail.

NBI work continues. The next scheduled appearances and any charges will decide how much of the machine survives public light.