Are you high?
This was the reaction of Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert “Ace” Barbers on Friday to a statement by his political foe, Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay Jr., that the former had an ax to grind against him for planning to file a counter ethics suit in the House of Representatives.
READ: Pichay on Barbers countersuit threat: Be my guest
The spat between the two stemmed from a near altercation in the middle of a House constitutional amendments hearing on charter change that would have escalated into a fist fight had their colleagues not separated them.
Over a debate on the preferred mode of charter change–Constitutional Convention or Constituent Assembly–Barbers went up to Pichay and cursed him, while Pichay also returned the swearing.
WATCH: Charter change debate ends with solons’ fight
“I have an ax to grind daw. (He’s) disillusioned, he’s probably taking drugs and imagining things, such as I have an ax to grind against him for putting up somebody against me,” Barbers said.
Barbers and Pichay’s political spat supposedly started when Pichay claimed to have fielded the Romarates and Matugas in Surigao del Norte to end the Barbers’ rule in the province in 2010.
READ: Political rift may be behind Barbers-Pichay spat
Barbers only regained his congressional seat in the 2016 elections, but his brother Lyndon failed in his congressional and mayoralty bids in 2007 and 2010, respectively. Surigao del Norte was the bailiwick of the Barbers clan before the patriarch, former congressman and senator Robert Barbers, died of a heart attack in 2005.
In a phone interview with the Inquirer, Barbers said Pichay should stop hallucinating and imagining himself as a kingpin in Surigao.
He dared Pichay instead to try to run as barangay captain in Surigao del Norte – or, even better, run against him in the congressional race.
“If he insists on his hallucination, I want him to run against me if he likes. I can’t help laughing, in fact, I fell off my chair. Because he never stopped hallucinating, he’s probably taking drugs,” Barbers said.
READ: Pichay files ethics complaint vs Barbers for disorderly behavior
“I suggest that before he thinks of becoming a kingmaker, a kingpin in our province, he should first do it in my province. I don’t know if he can even win as barangay captain in my province,” he added.
Sought for reaction, Pichay said he would rather not dignify an “immature” statement from his colleague.
“I will not answer that, I will not dignify that statement,” Pichay said over the phone.
“His statements will speak for what kind of person he is,” he added.
Pichay has filed an ethics complaint against Barbers over the altercation in Congress, accusing his colleague of disorderly behavior.
Barbers also accused Pichay of pressuring environment officials to secure ore shipment permits for the latter’s mining firm Claver Mineral and Development Corp. (CMDC), which was halted under the Duterte administration.
Pichay denied using his political clout to get preferential treatment. CDG/rga