Senators’ disgust over fake news rekindles in Senate hearing

“But once you start hitting me, calling me names and charging me with crimes I did not commit, my first move is to hunt you down.”

This was how Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente Sotto III expressed his frustration anew over the instances he was bashed on social media due to “fake news.”

“I’ve been bashed a number of times since 2012 since the issue on RH (Reproductive Health) bill,” Sotto said as he delivered his opening speech at the Senate committee on public information and mass media hearing on fake news, Wednesday.

Despite the warning, the senator said he already got used to criticisms.

Senator Manny Pacquiao, meanwhile, recalled how he was enraged after the “Silent No More” Facebook page tagged him and other six senators as “Malacañang Dogs in Senate” for not signing a resolution against the spate of killings in the country.

Pacquiao said he was not even aware of the Senate resolution no. 516.

“Ni anino nga ng resolution di ko nakita eh… Hindi ito nagkataon lang, ito’y sinadya. Di kami pinanganak kahapon para di malaman ang katangahang ginagawa sa amin,” said the senator.

Pacquiao also pointed out that he condemns the “killings of the innocent,” and that the said “fake news” that circulated social media was “an attack to the Senate as an institution.”

“This is an attack to the Senate as an institution… Ang fake news parang lason na dahan-dahang sumisira sa ating kaisipan,” he added. /jpv