Walden Bello, a former Akbayan Party-list legislator and vice presidential contender in the May 2022 elections, was arrested on Wednesday and blamed it on Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio.

Simultaneously, Bello denounced political harassment in relation with internet libel accusations brought against him in a Davao Municipal court.

On Tuesday, a day after his detention by the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) at his apartment in Barangay Holy Spirit, Bello, 76, claimed he had “no doubt” and it is “very clear that Sara Duterte is the mastermind behind my arrest by weaponizing the Cyber-crime Law to silence those critical to them.”

He informed Duterte, though, that “you cannot stop us from revealing public corruption and irregularities in the government.” 

Bello, along with his then running partner and presidential candidate, Bukluran ng Mamamayan chairman Leodegario “Leody” de Guzman, and his primary legal counsel, Luke Espiritu, said the lawsuit against him was obvious proxy harassment, with nothing less than the Vice President as the true “protagonist.”

“Just as Ms. Duterte and her running mate and now President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had repeatedly cowardly refused to participate in debates with other candidates in the recent elections,” Bello stated, “she is running to form by putting up a dummy to file the charges against me.”