Bam Aquino: No pressure from LP over Poe case at SET
Sen. Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
SENATOR Bam Aquino assured on Monday that his support for the administration’s bet in 2016 would not affect his vote on the disqualification case filed against Senator Grace Poe at the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET).
Aquino, a member of the 9-man SET, is also part of the Liberal Party (LP), which endorsed the presidential bid of former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas in 2016.
“Actually in fairness no, walang tumawag sa akin, walang nagparamdam na kahit sinuman from the party or any other politician. Wala,” the senator told reporters on Monday.
(Actually, in fairness, no one has called me, no one has sent a feeler from the party or any other politician. None.)
“And I think there’s that trust at least sa partido na gawin mo yung tama at gawin mo yung nararapat (from the party to do what is right and what is necessary) as your duty as a senator of the Philippines and as your duty as part of the SET,” he said.
Aquino made the remarks when asked if members of the SET, who have links with Poe’s rivals, should inhibit from the case filed against Poe over her citizenship.
READ: Carpio should inhibit from Grace Poe case – Bello
He said no one would be left in the tribunal if they would inhibit themselves simply based on their political alliances or leanings.
“Well sa totoo lang kung ganyan ang mangyayari, lahat kami matatanggal because everyone has connection with the other candidates. As I said nga before, sana naman magtiwala naman yung mga tao na kaya naming gawin yung trabaho namin nang maayos. May proseso naman yan…” he said.
(To be honest, if that would happen, we’ll all be removed because everyone has connection with the other candidates. As I said before, the people will trust us that we can do our jobs properly. There’s a process anyway.)
The SET is composed of its chairman, Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, two other justices and six senators, including Aquino, and Senator Nancy Binay, whose father, Vice President Jejomar Binay, is running against Poe.
“But ang underlying d’yan, we have to do our jobs properly kailangang tingnan namin yung lahat ng mga ebidensya, pakinggan namin pleadings ng bawat partido at mag-decide kami based on the facts and based on what we think is right,” said Aquino.
(But the underling thing there, we have to do our jobs properly, we need to look at the evidence, listen to the pleadings of each party and decide based on the facts and based on what we think is right.)
“Si Nancy will of course support her father , of course I’ll support our candidate but even with that, kaya naman naming gawin yung trabaho namin (we can do our jobs) and I think we can rule on this with integrity,” he added.
Asked again if there were people trying to influence him on the case against Poe, Aquino said: “No one has called, no one has emailed, texted or whatever. Palagay ko nirerespeto nila yung aming position bilang SET members (I think they respect our position as SET members).” Maila Ager/AC
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