Risa: Neophyte senator can't destroy Senate majority bloc

Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros on Saturday said Senator Cynthia Villar's accusation that she and Senator Bam Aquino are plotting against their colleagues in the majority bloc are baseless.

"Itigil na ang mga walang batayang akusasyon na 'yan. Unless they can be substantiated with evidence, these accusations must stop," Hontiveros said in a statement.

"The sources of the intrigue are the ones destroying not only the Senate majority but the harmony between and among majority and minority senators," she added.

Hontiveros was referring to Villar's accusation, based on a tip from social media, that she and Aquino are plotting against the majority coalition in the Senate.

She said she has no power to destroy the majority bloc, insisting that she is only a neophyte senator.

"Paano ko sisirain ang Senate majority? Ako ay isang neophyte Senator na kasapi ng minority. Anong kapangyarihan na mayroon ako para gawin yon? It defies logic and reason,

"As a first-term Senator, I treasure the partnerships I have built and sustained with my fellow senators regardless of membership to the majority or minority. I will not let some silly internet meme ruin that," she said.

Villar first opened the issue during Wednesday's session.

"It's really somebody from the social media [who] told me before, [that a] long time ago, that there are two senators who [are] going to destroy us. But I did not believe it. It's just that when I saw that blog, then I started thinking, that it was really true," Villar had said.

"They told me, really, that Bam aquino and Risa Hontiveros will try to destroy us...When I saw that blog, I said, this is the beginning," she added.

Aquino, in his own speech, denied Villar's accusation and dismissed her basis as "fake news."

"The whole start about fake news, is if you believe it. It's bad enough na may nagkakalat po ng fake news, it's even worse na mayroon pong naniniwala," Aquino said.

Hontiveros, in her statement, urged fellow senators to "collectively deal with the problem of fake news."

"Accusing fellow senators of baseless charges is unproductive. It is barking up at the wrong tree," she added. —Margaret Claire Layug/ALG, GMA News