Senator Risa Hotiveros said the gunshots and chaos at the Senate building Wednesday evening was “historic low for our country.”
“We need to get to the bottom of this. The Filipino people deserve a full, independent, and unobstructed accounting. There should be no cover up, ” Hontiveros said Thursday afternoon.
Hontiveros, who was in Bacolod to speak at the opening of the 35th Visayas Area Business Conference, said a through inter-agency investigation must be conducted to determine who started the terrible incident at the Senate and caused it to escalate.
“The whole Senate as an institution is placed on the spot leaving the task of accountability at what happened at the door of the Senate leadership”, she said.
“Unfortunately, the Senate, The People's House, the hallowed space where laws are made and rights are defended, was turned into a shooting range. That is desecration, not just of our walls, but of the trust placed in that institution,” she said.
“We, Senators, are mere stewards of the Senate. The Senate belongs to the Filipino people, so no one gets to act like they own the place, much less barricade themselves inside it,” she added.
To prevent further violence and tension inside or outside the Senate, Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa should surrender and cooperate with Philippine authorities with regards to his warrant of arrest, she said. She said it is terrible that the public impression is that the incident at the Senate was staged to allow a senator to avoid the legal process.
As lawmakers we should set the example of respecting the law and following legal processes, she said.
Dela Rosa is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity of murder committed from July 3, 2016, until the end of April 2018, wherein at least 32 persons died.
Hontiveros said when the session at the Senate adjourned Wednesday night she and her colleagues, mostly in the minority, and their staff went home. She then proceeded to the airport for her flight to Bacolod, Hontiveros said.
That some people are spinning intrigues about their having gone home before the shooting at the Senate is being done by a man who does not want to face the law and the legal processes, Hontiveros said.
“There is only one reason some bad faith actors are trying very hard to make this controversial event about me and other Minority senators and the times we went home. All this for a man who simply doesn't want to face the law.”
That is a disservice, especially to the employees of the Senate who are just doing an honest day of work.
“The uniformed services and the Senate media were placed in a terrible situation,” she said.
The Senate is faced with the tasks of regaining a reputation of integrity in the eyes of the Filipino people and to continue with its work of addressing the multiple crisis being faced by the nation, Hontiveros said.
She also said any delay in the impeachment trial of Vice President Saara Duterte would undermine democracy.
Hontiveros said she was very sad that Senator Loren Legarda joined the group that ousted Senator Tito Sotto as senate president.*
[sibwp_form id=1]