Senators cry foul over blog posts branding them as ‘Palace dogs’
Emotions ran high during the Senate session on Wednesday as some senators, who were criticized for allegedly not signing the resolution calling for an end to the killings, decried demolition job by certain individuals.
Voices were raised when Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, Senators Richard Gordon, Manny Pacquiao, and Miguel Zubiri took the floor to condemn the attacks they, and three other majority senators, received for supposedly not joining their 16 colleagues in urging President Rodrigo Duterte to stop the senseless killings.
Aside from the four senators, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel, Senators Cynthia Villar, and Gregorio Honasan also failed to sign the Senate Resolution no. 516 released last Monday.
The senators explained that the resolution did not reach their office.
Sotto will file cybercrime libel charges against the persons behind a “fake news” blog SilentNoMore.ph for publishing “stupid and silly” article entitled “Malacañang Dogs in the Senate: Pimentel, Sotto, Gordon, Villar, Zubiri, Honasan, Pacquiao.”
“Ang katangahan nila, hindi nakarating sa amin ‘yan. Walang nagpapirma sa akin niyan kaya hindi pwedeng sabihin na I did not sign. Now the offensive part is this, pagsunod niyan iniisa isa kaming pito at ang sasama ng sinabi,” Sotto said.
(Their foolishness, they did not know [the resolution] did not reach our office. No one asked us to sign it so it’s not right to say we did not intentionally sign it. Now the offensive part is this, after which they hurled bad words at us, one after another.)
Sotto said he was only being kind because he will only file a cyberlibel case against them, “otherwise masalubong ko ‘to sa daan (if I come across them in the street), I will not be able to help myself. I will scatter their brains.”
Pacquiao also made a manifestation that no one asked him to sign the resolution as it did not pass through his office.
The boxer-turned-politician warned the “cowards” behind the alleged demolition job that he will not be afraid to face them.
Clenching his fist and cracking his knuckles, Pacquiao said: “Sana hindi mangyari na mapatawag siya sa Senado kundi…. If I’m not spiritually renewed, ayaw ko na bumalik sa dati kong buhay. Pinipilit ko magpakabait at gawin ang tama pero kapag ganyang mga klaseng tao, hindi ako magdadalawang isip para…”
(I hope that person will not be called before the Senate, or else… If I’m not spiritually renewed, I don’t want to go back to my previous [lifestyle]. I’ve been trying my best to do what is right but if you encounter these kinds of people, I will not think twice to…)
Zubiri was also fuming mad when he delivered his manifestation.
“I would have signed (the resolution). I don’t know if this is a deliberate attempt to destroy us. Let’s call spade a spade… If you want to pick a fight with your colleagues, ‘wag duwag. Harap-harapan na lang (Don’t be coward. Do it face to face),” the senator said.
After being bypassed, Zubiri said they filed another resolution urging the Duterte administration to end the killings, not only of children and minors, but all extrajudicial and unresolved killings.
Other senators in the majority bloc also signed, including Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, Senators Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Sherwin Gatchalian, Grace Poe, Joel Villanueva, and JV Ejercito. /jpv
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