social media for the past years that he has been in public office, Gatchalian said that "it was basically the lies" being thrown at him, particularly the word "balimbing" or turncoat.

"For the record when I joined public service in 2001... I joined the [National People's Coalition] and still now I'm part of the NPC party from 2001 to 2017," he said.

Gatchalian stressed that he cannot be called "balimbing" if he has stayed with only one party for the past 17 years.

"This is obviously a lie and this type of organized group is designed to really bring out the worst in you by throwing lies, by throwing profanities," he said.

Earlier this week, one Twitter user posted screenshots of Gatchalian's tweets in 2011 praising former President Benigno III and hiswas awarded primary physical custody of the couple's one child ("Child"), who was born on March 22, 1996, while Father was granted reasonable visitation. At some point following the divorce, Father moved to Missouri. Mother remained in Kansas, and up until at least November 2000, aside from visitations in Missouri with Father, Child resided in Kansas as well.
Mother and Father agree that Child came to Missouri on November 3, 2000 for a visitation with Father. The discrepancy over where Child resided and with whom Child may have lived temporarily begins sometime around November 6, 2000. According to Mother, since Child had not been returned to Kansas in time to avoid his third absence from a Head Start program (which would cause him to be disenrolled), she agreed to