Blogger’s request for a Senate executive session irks Bam

A visibly irked Senator Bam Aquino slammed on Wednesday the administrator of the “Thinking Pinoy” blog for requesting an executive session to divulge more information about the alleged individuals behind the “Silent No More” blog.

“I don’t think he’s being cautious at all, after all he’s been mentioning individuals already, he’s mentioned me already so nasaan po yung caution doon? Baka magandang ikwento nalang ho n’ya lahat ngayon, magkalabasan na,” Aquino said.

During the Senate committee on public information and mass media hearing on fake news, Rey Joseph Nieto of “Thinking Pinoy” blog revealed that according to his own research, a certain Edward Angelo “Cocoy” Dayao and Niña Zialcita are behind the “Silent No More” blog which recently tagged seven senators as “Malacañang Dogs in Senate” for not signing a resolution against the spate of killings in the country.

Nieto also alleged that his research showed that Dayao was a former Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) officer of former President Benigno Aquino III, and Zialcita was a former political communications officer of Senator Francis Pangilinan and the younger Aquino.

“Napatunayan ko so far, si Cocoy Dayao sya yung administrator ng blog but it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s also creating the content,” Nieto clarified.

When Senator Vicente Sotto III asked Nieto if these names could be verified through Google Adsense, Nieto said he would be willing to reveal more information in an executive session.

“That is possible po kaya lang po, I can answer that po in an executive session kasi I don’t want to break laws,” said Nieto.

He also clarified that he does not want to implicate Dayao and Zialcita and he was just simply stating what he found out.

Pangilinan clarified Nieto’s request for an executive session, and Senator Grace Poe said Nieto “just wants to be cautious.”

“Itong mga pangalan naman na ito ay base lamang sa iyong mga pananaliksik diumano, hindi mo naman sinasabi na sila na talaga kaya nga may pagdinig para maberipika so hindi yan libel, hindi yan paninira,” said Poe, chair of the Senate panel hearing the issue on fake news. /jpv