‘Be professional,’ lawmaker tells Aguirre following ‘dilawan’ remark

A lawmaker on Wednesday told Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II to “be professional” and avoid making political statements, following his “dilawan” remark on several senators.

“Be professional in making public conclusions so that objective investigation and due process are given due course, the truth is played out, and so justice may be served,” Manila Rep. Rosenda Ann Ocampo told Aguirre.

Ocampo is a member of the committee on justice of the bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA), which deferred Aguirre’s appointment to a later date due to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s opposition.

Ocampo cited a statement of Aguirre to the media where he referred to several senators as “dilawan,” the color associated to the former ruling party, the Liberal Party (LP).

Aguirre uttered the term “dilawan” when he accused Senators Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan and Trillanes of working with Senator Leila de Lima to implicate him in the Bureau of Immigration bribery scandal. Pangilinan and De Lima are both LP  members.

Aguirre explained that he did not use the term to “degrade” anybody.

“This is in connection with the color coding of candidates in the last elections. The color of LP is yellow and so they were termed dilawan,” he said.

“If I ever use it, I never use it to chastise or degrade anybody. I just use it to be easily understood by everybody that I’m referring to them,” he added.

Aguirre said he was a member of LP until 2015, adding his father was the party's chairman in their town in Quezon up to his death.

He said he left the LP when he felt it unfair for former President Benigno Aquino III to blame the 2015 Mamapasano massacre on former Special Action Force (SAF) commander Director Getulio Napeñas Jr., his cousin.

“Lahat ng kasalanan ay binigay or tinapon niya kay General Napeñas, which I don’t believe is true. I believe that it was so unfair; I had to leave the Liberal Party,” Aguirre said. —KBK, GMA News