Sen. Francis Pangillinan. (Photo by RICHARD A. REYES / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
“We are in a democracy, not a dictatorship,” Senator Francis Pangilinan said on Friday.
Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party (LP), issued the statement amid allegations that partymates and colleagues in the Senate minority bloc were behind ouster moves against President Rodrigo Duterte.
In a speech on Thursday, Duterte directly accused Vice President Leni Robredo, and Senators Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes IV of allegedly planning to unseat him.
READ: Duterte thinks Trillanes, De Lima, Robredo planning to unseat him
Robredo and De Lima are part of LP while Trillanes belongs to the Senate minority bloc in which Pangilinan is also a member.
But Pangilinan reminded the administration that “dissent does not mean destabilization.”
In fact, he said, it is the constitutional duty of the legislative branch to act as a check and balance should there be excesses or abuses in the executive, citing as example the alleged P50 million corruption scandal at the Bureau of Immigration, the killing of former Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa allegedly by some rouge policemen, and the alleged unresolved extrajudicial killings in the country.
“Dissent to ensure checks and balance is a constitutional duty,” Pangilinan stressed. JE