Lacson denies meeting with VP Sara

Senator-elect Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday denied that he had recently met with Vice President Sara Duterte.

In a statement, Lacson said he had been receiving reports that he and another senator-elect supposedly met with Duterte.

Lacson, who ran in the May 2025 midterm elections under the administration coalition, dismissed the information as “outright malicious.”

“I vehemently deny and dismiss such rumor as absolutely false and outright malicious for one simple reason only: as an elected senator who is a potential senator-judge in the impeachment trial involving the Vice President should the said trial cross over to the 20th Congress, it is the height of impropriety to meet with her, being a respondent in the said impeachment case already transmitted to the Senate,” Lacson said.

Under normal circumstances, newly elected senators or congressmen may pay a courtesy call on the vice president, Lacson said.

He said he visited then-Vice President Leni Robredo in 2016 after winning his third Senate term.

Duterte was impeached by the House of Representatives on February 5, with over 200 congressmen endorsing the complaint against her.

She was accused of betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, and other high crimes.

On February 18, Duterte filed a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the impeachment complaint.

The impeachment trial will begin on July 30. — VBL, GMA Integrated News