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Senators Joker Arroyo and Panfilo Lacson are accusing each other of
harassing resource persons at Senate inquiries, with Arroyo
insinuating on the disappearance of persons who had tangled with
Lacson.
“Sen. Joker Arroyo may have been looking at
the mirror when he accused some of his colleagues for harassing
resource persons at Senate investigations. Remember how he
threatened Jun Lozada?” Lacson said.
Arroyo barked “Don’t mess with my wife”
when Lozada, a key witness in the aborted $329-million national
broadband network deal, said that he could not be accused of talking
only with opposition senators because he had also gone to the
residence of Arroyo and talked with his wife.
It turned out that Lozada visited Arroyo’s
wife to get legal advice on the broadband controversy before he was
even invited by the Senate to testify. Lozada later apologized to
Arroyo.
Lacson added that Arroyo might also be talking
about himself when he accused Lacson of “double standard,” where
he looked down on Filipinos and looked high to foreigners.
“Who else looks down on witnesses who link
this government to irregularities? Who else not only looks up to
Malacañang’s defenders but also gives them protection?” Lacson
said of Arroyo.
Arroyo said that Lacson had actually seconded
the motion to investigate the Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce but
later pitied them.
“That’s why I am scared of dual
personalities,” Arroyo said.
He denied being rough with the joint chambers at
the inquiry by the Senate Committee on Energy, and cited the live
coverage of the hearing as proof of this.
Arroyo then said that he was afraid to tangle
with Lacson.
“I do not want that I suffer the fate of those
that tangled with him. Like the tortured Aberca, decided by the
Supreme Court; the rubbed-out Kuratong Baleleng, pending with the
Supreme Court; and the murdered Bobby Dacer, my province mate whose
case is in limbo,” he said.
-- Efren L. Danao
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