Malcolm Conlan on Gene Alcantara's untrue and even offensive claims against him

Dear Red Pepper,

I am writing to you following the feature you published on Feb 4th 2018, where Mr Tom Sykes, interviewed staunch critic of President Rodrigo Duterte, a certain Mr Gene Alcantara.

In the said interview, Mr Alcantara made a number of untrue and even offensive claims against me, which are fake news, which I cannot therefore condone or allow in the public domain. Please see below the actual extract from your blog which is of concern:

‘Absolutely. There’s also Malcolm Conlan, a leading British member of DDS [Diehard Duterte Supporters, the acronym being a grisly pun on the Davao Death Squad which murders drug suspects in the southern Philippines], led the pack when a troll said she wished my family would be raped. When I confronted Conlan about the extra judicial killings, he said there’s no such thing! He thinks international and local news sources are fake and gets his information from other trolls.

I’d suspect some of these trolls are on the payroll because Duterte has a 2.5 billion peso (about £37.4 million) confidential “intelligence fund”, and I’ve seen social media posts where people talk about “not receiving our payment yet.” We know now that Cambridge Analytica played a role in Duterte’s election victory too’.

My responses:

1. I am NOT a member of ANY so called DDS group either in the UK, EU or worldwide. I have never signed up to any kind of membership, paid any money into or in any other way agreed to be a member of a DDS group. This is therefore a false and entirely malicious claim. I admit that I have however attended a number of DDS events both in the UK, EU and later in the year, possibly in the USA. I do however fully support their aims and appreciate what they are doing for the Philippines and President. 

2. I am active in a number of Filipino community groups in the UK, I attend filipino community events on a regular basis, my attendance at the said events does not I believe constitute me being made a member of the said organisation?

3. I am involved in certain Filipino groups in the UK, which are also non political, I am also a member of other charity related organisations in the UK, part of their terms of office is that I am involved politically in this work and not involved in politics publicly. The false claims therefore that I am a DDS member could jeopardise my involvement in the said charities. I therefore ask that you allow me to tell my side of the story or be able to dispute these false claims. I am happy to provide witnesses if necessary to prove my case. 

4. Mr Alcantara claims that I led some kind of pack against him and as a result, another person made an online threat about one of his family being raped. I would like to publicly distance myself from all such threats. I know the family of Gene personally and I would not wish them any ill whatsoever. 

5. Mr Alcantara claims that his life is somehow in danger due to his political views and I have somehow contributed to this threat by publicly challenging him. Just wanted to let Mr Alcantara know, he is entirely irrelevant in the Philippines. The Filipino public are fully aware that he regularly spreads fake news and indeed hate against President Duterte, even wishing the democratically elected head of the Republic of the Philippines dead on a number of occasions. Any bad feeling towards Gene, he has brought on entirely himself. 

6. I am not on any payroll of either President Duterte or the Duterte administration. I have not been paid even a single centavo for my support of the President. I do so of my own freewill as I believe President Duterte is doing a fantastic job and he will always have my support.

Thanks so much,

Kind regards,

Malcolm Conlan, 

London, UK