MANILA, Philippines—Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. lamented the social media backlash describing the House of Representatives probe as a “circus” of outraged lawmakers, but he remained grateful for the power of social media to keep the august body in check.
At the sidelines of a press conference Tuesday, Belmonte said he appreciated the influence of social media to always remind Congress that it is always under the scrutiny of feisty, tech-savvy netizens.
“I have to say, mabuti na rin na may social media. It means many people are paying attention. It is also a way of keeping our people well-behaved knowing they are under scrutiny by literally millions of people,” Belmonte said.
Last week’s House probe on the carnage was marred by emotional lawmakers upstaging each other to express their outrage over the botched operation that left 44 Special Action Force (SAF) cops dead in an attack by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which is under a peace deal with government.
“They were super enthusiastic,” Belmonte said of the circus probe.
He admitted that the social media backlash was one of the considerations in the House leadership’s call to suspend further hearings pending the results of the police investigation on the carnage.
“That is one of the reasons. But the main reason is that we can do this in an orderly way … Ayaw ko rin naman na sinasabing nag-si-circus kami rito (I don’t want them to say we’re having a circus here),” Belmonte said.
“Hopefully it’s a wakeup call … (This is) an isolated incident which I’ll make sure and see to it doesn’t recur,” he added.
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