Another day, another political drama on the Senate floor, where proceedings once again played out like a movie that divided the chamber.

During a privilege speech on Monday, May 25, Senator Imee Marcos played a nine-minute video insinuating that members of the minority bloc were quietly backing moves to revise the Constitution.

Senators from the minority bloc dismissed the presentation as a “conspiracy theory” video, saying it lacked basis.

Marcos claimed that Tito Sotto’s bloc wanted to extend the terms of incumbent officials, postpone the 2028 national elections, and increase the number of senators by creating a regionalized Senate.

She also alleged that there were proposals to raise the minimum age requirement for presidential candidates to 50, supposedly to block Sara Duterte from seeking the presidency.

Marcos has repeatedly claimed that efforts to oust newly-installed Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano were tied to plans to push constitutional amendments.

Sotto denied these allegations.

“Character change,” according to Sotto, is the only “Cha-Cha” the country needs, not charter change.

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Marcos claimed that Sotto, accompanied by former Senate secretary Mark “Dong” Mendoza, met at Solaire on April 22 with House Speaker Bojie Dy III to supposedly discuss amendments to the Constitution. Dy was allegedly with South Cotabato Representative Ferdinand Hernandez.

Mendoza denied allegations he is part of any effort to change the Constitution. “Meeting with colleagues, friends, and fellow public servants outside official settings should not be maliciously construed as wrongdoing,” he said.

Sotto admitted meeting with Dy, who is also his golf buddy. Sotto, however, clarified that constitutional change was not part of the discussion.

Minority bloc pushes back

The presentation also immediately drew backlash inside the chamber.

Migz Zubiri, visibly irritated while the video was playing, moved to strike Marcos’ presentation from the record, branding it a “horrible propaganda video.”

“We are becoming a circus because of the type of language being pushed in this august chamber. It’s unparliamentary,” Zubiri said.

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Drawing from his decades in broadcast media, Raffy Tulfo also tore down the presentation, calling it an opinionated, made-up piece fueled by “conspiracy theories” rather than hard evidence.

“Hao shao” or fake, was how Tulfo described the video.

Tulfo lectured Marcos, saying that investigative presentations and privilege speeches should be backed by verifiable evidence and actual testimonies, not speculation or fabricated narratives.

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Senator Kiko Pangilinan, a member of the minority bloc and former chairperson of the Senate constitutional amendments committee, also denied that there had been any push for charter change under his watch.

Risa Hontiveros likewise rebuked Marcos, saying, “delivering a privilege speech is not the same as having the privilege to insert fake news into the official record as if it were evidence.”

“Ganito na ba kababa ang inaabot ng pulitika sa Pilipinas na hanggang dito sa floor, magbabatuhan tayo ng putik?” Hontiveros asked. (Has politics in the Philippines really sunk this low that even here on the floor, we’re throwing mud at each other?)

Senators Win Gatchalian and Bam Aquino also questioned the video shown by Marcos.

Since Senator Alan Peter Cayetano was installed as Senate president, members of the majority bloc — including Cayetano himself — have been claiming that the minority is pushing to amend the 1987 Constitution.

Rodante Marcoleta, a member of the majority bloc, opposed the motion to strike Marcos’ presentation from the record.

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Cayetano, acting as a peacemaker between the two camps, instead urged his ally Marcos to voluntarily withdraw the video presentation from the Senate record. Marcos agreed.

The Senate, in the past two weeks, has been mired in controversy. Like an action film, there was a shooting incident and a senator evading a warrant of arrest, and then the lockdowns. The chamber also saw drama after a senator cried over the remarks of a fellow senator.

The Senate drama appears to have become a real-life film. What will the next theme of the next Senate session be? – Rappler.com

المصدر: Rappler (PH)