Latest in Senate shootingFormer Senator Richard “Dick” Gordon on Saturday, May 23 renewed his call for the Ombudsman to reopen the Pharmally investigation, citing specific figures that underscore the scale of the alleged anomaly: a company with only ₱625,000 in capital received ₱11.7 billion in government contracts, and…
Former Senator Richard “Dick” Gordon on Saturday, May 23, raised the legal specter of criminal liability for senators who placed Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa under protective custody, saying they may be liable as accessories to a crime under the Revised Penal Code—and naming Senate President…
Former Senator Richard “Dick” Gordon on Saturday said the Philippine Senate burned itself by placing Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa under protective custody and shielding him from the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, saying while he is not ready to declare the entire Senate has…
Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Saturday, May 23, validated the widely shared public perception that the Philippine Senate has degenerated from a deliberative body of statesmen into a spectacle—agreeing with “organic netizens” who have been comparing the chamber to a children’s playground, and…
Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Saturday, May 23, flatly dismissed allegations that the minority bloc’s push for a Senate leadership change is driven by a desire to advance a Constituent Assembly, calling the claim baseless and saying the subject has never come up in any of the minority’s…
Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Saturday called for a Senate-wide retreat and collective self-reflection as the most meaningful first step toward rebuilding the institution’s dignity and integrity, invoking the model set by Senate President Jovito Salonga after the 1989 coup attempt—when Salonga…
Even senators themselves privately acknowledge that the institution’s reputation has sunk to its lowest point in recent memory, with Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson saying the public anger directed at the Senate in the wake of the May 13 shooting incident and the ongoing political turmoil is…
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Melvin Matibag pushed back against Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano’s remark that the bureau had failed to “undermine” the Senate. On Monday, May 18, the NBI chief stressed that the NBI’s actions were rooted in law enforcement and not directed at…
Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Tuesday, May 19 called on the public to remain vigilant and unrelenting in its scrutiny of the Senate’s impeachment proceedings against Vice President Sara Duterte. Lacson said the chamber’s formal convening as an impeachment court on Monday marked a welcome…
In the middle of one of the most turbulent weeks in recent Philippine political history, former Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan reached back four decades to find the model of leadership the country needs right now—and the name he came up was a former president who once spent two hours over…
Forty years after EDSA, the Philippines finds itself in the middle of another political crisis—a Senate shooting, an ICC arrest warrant, a leadership shakeup, and an impeachment trial all converging in a single week—and former Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, who has lived through more of these…
The Senate shooting incident and the political storm surrounding it have cost the country something far more valuable than any political narrative being built around it—the time and focus that should have been devoted to the real and enduring problems of ordinary Filipinos, former Senator Gregorio…
Former Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan on Saturday, May 16 refused to conclude that the Senate was under attack during the shooting incident on the night of May 13, urging the public to await the results of the ongoing investigation rather than accept any premature characterization of the event.…
Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida rejected Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano’s call to suspend NBI Director Melvin Matibag alongside Acting Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mao Aplasca, saying he sees no grounds for such a move and that it is not within his authority as Justice Secretary to issue a…
Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano said he took offense at Executive Secretary Ralph Recto for sharing a Facebook post suggesting the Senate shooting incident on the night of May 13 was “staged and pre-planned,” saying the post was irresponsible given that an investigation is still ongoing. “I…
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