#OustKiko? Pangilinan won’t vacate post due to ‘clamor’ of paid trolls

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Francis Pangilinan said he would be ready to vacate his committee chairmanship at the Senate, but only upon the request of the Senate leadership and not because of the “clamor” of paid online trolls.

Pangilinan, a prominent opposition figure, said this as the hashtag #OustKiko trended on micro-blogging site Twitter.

“I am ready to give up the post anytime if asked by the Senate leadership but certainly not because of the ‘clamor’ of paid online trolls,” he said in a message to reporters.

“Besides, the argument that the problem of COVID will be solved by charter change is quite frankly out of this world,” he added.

Pangilinan currently chairs the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments, Revision of Codes and Laws.

The hashtag is a movement allegedly started by administration supporters supposedly seeking Pangilinan’s removal from his committee chairmanship.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III said there are no talks in the upper chamber to strip the opposition senator of his chairmanship.

“Ako SP (Senate President) wala ako naririnig…Imbento siguro,” he said in a Viber message to reporters.

(I’m the SP yet I have not heard anything like that. Must have been invented.)

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon also dismissed the supposed ouster of Pangilinan as a “feeble attempt by the troll farm manager to falsely project a movement to amend the Constitution.”

“Amending the Constitution is not the answer to [COVID-19],” he said in a separate text message to INQUIRER.net.

EDV