Senator Cynthia Villar on Wednesday said “someone from social media” warned her about two minority senators who have been plotting to destroy their colleagues in the majority coalition of the Senate.
Villar later identified them to be Senators Bam Aquino and Risa Hontiveros.
Both Aquino and Hontiveros vehemently denied plotting against the Senate majority.
“I just want to make a manifestation. It’s really somebody from social media who told me before long time ago that there are two senators who are going to destroy us,” Villar said during the Senate regular session.
Before the session started, Villar said Aquino and Hontiveros were allegedly “out to destroy the majority.” The senator could not say what the intention was behind the alleged demolition job.
She said this as she lamented about the criticisms thrown at her and six other majority senators for allegedly not signing a resolution urging President Duterte to stop the senseless killings, especially of children and minors.
Villar and the rest of the six senators who did not sign the Senate Resolution No. 516, said the document did not reach their office.
When the issue broke out, Villar said she surmised that “maybe this is the beginning” of the demolition plot.
But later in the session, she said she did not believe the warning she has been receiving against Aquino and Hontiveros.
“I didn’t believe it. It’s just that when I saw that blog, then I started thinking that it was really true and I want to clarify with Senators Bam and Risa they told me really that Senators Bam and Risa are trying to destroy us,” she said.
When Aquino took the floor, he said he took offense at Villar’s accusation.
“All of us here have become victims of fake news and now is the time to put an end to this,” Aquino said.
“I’m happy that Senator Villar clarified that she did not believe it. The worst part about fake news is if you believe it,” he said.
The minority senator added that the members of the chamber should all just talk and give each other the benefit of the doubt.
Hontiveros, for her part, said she was “physically shocked” upon hearing Villar’s claim.
“I categorically deny that at na-appreciate ko rin na hindi siya naniniwala. It’s totally untrue and it’s not the start of anything at all,” she said.
The neophyte senator, who has been staunchly criticizing the Duterte administration’s deadly drug war, said she herself has become an “object of the death of civility in social media.”
“Terible ‘yung karahasan, sexism, pagbabanta pagiinsulto na araw-araw kailangan kong daanan para mabasa ko yung posts ng mga totoong tao,” she lamented.
“Ang mas nakakasira sa Senado ay yung mga ganyang klaseng intriga na itatanim sa isip o puso ng isa o ilang mga kasama natin tungkol sa iba,” she added.