Lacson shares advice he got as newbie senator: Watch and learn 

MANILA, Philippines — A piece of advice for newbie senators: Don’t just stand up and take the floor if you don’t want to end up being grilled by veterans.

This, in sum, was how Senator Panfilo Lacson clearly recalled the advice he got from veteran senators when he was first elected in 2001.

“Instead of giving unsolicited advice, I will just share our own experience,”  Lacson said at the regular Kapihan sa Senado on Thursday when sought for comment on this week’s grilling of neophyte Senator Francis Tolentino  by Minority Leader  Franklin Drilon.

“When we first came into the Senate in 2001, pinulong kami ng mga mga (veteran senators.) Ang tanda  ko si Senator Sotto at that time, nandyan na…” he said, referring to now Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.

Then Lacson quoted Sotto as saying: “Kayo mga bagito, huwag kayong tayo ng tayo kaagad. Makiramdam kayo ng maski tatlo o apat na buwan, manood muna kayo.”

“Huwag kayong mangangahas na magtatayo dyan, magdidipa kayo dyan at tyak na tatamaan kayo. Yun lang,” Sotto went on as quoted by Lacson.

But no, Lacson is not giving the same advice to newly-elected senators.

Lacson quickly clarified though that he was just sharing his own experience.

“Yun ang advice sa amin. I’m just sharing our experience,” he pointed out.

Drilon’s intense questioning of Tolentino made headlines when the latter  delivered his privilege speech for the first time on Monday to defend President Rodrigo Duterte’s verbal agreement with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

READ: Baptism of fire: Tolentino defends Duterte-Xi verbal fishing deal, but admits he got no details

Tolentino insisted that the agreement, allowing China to fish in Philippine waters, was valid and legally binding.

But the Minority Leader challenged the neophyte senator to present first the details of the deal so they could determine its validity. Tolentino, however, admitted that he had no details of the agreement and that his assertions were just based on “anecdotal” media reports.

Instead of resuming his interpellation on Wednesday, Drilon suggested that the issue should be best discussed in a committee hearing, and not on the floor. /jpv

READ: Senate to probe Tolentino’s ‘novel legal theories’ on oral agreements