Cayetano-led Senate no-show disgusting, selfish, says Lacson
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday called Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano “kasuklam-suklam” (disgusting) and “selfish” for leading the majority bloc’s Senate regular sessions boycott.
“Try finding a Senate president who is himself spearheading a boycott of the regular session that he is supposed to preside over. Isn’t that disgusting?” Lacson said in Filipino in a DZMM interview.
He claimed that the only reason for the Cayetano-led absence is “to preserve his position, to preserve his Senate presidency, nothing more.”
“Selfish, very selfish,” Lacson added.
Speak in plenary, not Facebook Live
He also hit Cayetano for raising issues through Facebook Live instead of bringing them to the Senate floor.
“Where have you ever seen a Senate president deliver a privilege speech on Facebook instead of in the plenary hall? The ones questioning him there are his trolls. Deliver your speech in the plenary so you can be properly interpellated,” Lacson pointed out.
He added that Cayetano, as the Senate president, has to set a good example.
“Senator Alan has been our colleague for a long time. We’ve known him for a long time, and he’s good at debating. So he should face us there and deliver his speech there so we can debate with him. Not on Facebook, he’s always on Facebook,” said Lacson.
Lacson made the remark after Senate sessions had been called off for two consecutive days due to lack of quorum.
He again appealed to members of the majority bloc to attend Wednesday’s session, saying that they may have been misled to believe that sessions were suspended.
“He simply tells the senators’ staff that the session is suspended. But the truth is, it isn’t suspended. That’s why we were there; we never received any notice,” Lacson said.
Lacson also alleged that Cayetano did not release an official notice because the Senate chief does not want to document his wrongdoing.
“What kind of Senate is this? What kind of leadership is this?,” Lacson stressed. / gsg /atm
