Manila, July 14 -- Impeachment prosecution witness Jeremy Lotoc on Tuesday traced the alleged "Operation Romanov" threat to remarks made by Sebastian "Baste" Duterte against the First Family, reversing an earlier impression that the supposed plot targeted Vice President Sara Duterte and her relatives.

Lotoc told the Senate impeachment court that an open-source search led investigators to a January rally where Baste Duterte allegedly told President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to think about what happened to Russia's Romanov family.

"In so far as our investigation is concerned, since nag-start iyan doon kay Mayor Baste, at wala kaming ma-validate na ibang Romanov operation na nangyari, I think nag-start iyan sa kanila (since it started with ...