Metro Manila, Philippines – Civil society groups, women’s rights advocates, and academics have asked the Senate ethics committee to investigate Sen. Pia Cayetano’s Facebook post depicting an exchange between Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and House prosecutor Chel Diokno over the subpoena for Vice President Sara Duterte’s bank and tax records.
The July 24 video–which had garnered more than 118,000 reactions, 11,900 comments, and 17,000 shares as of this writing—was allegedly spliced to exclude Diokno’s explanation of the subpoena and discredit his arguments.
“The post maliciously inverted his statements and manufactured the narrative that the House Prosecution Panel was merely requesting records without any underlying evidence. Such post undermine the dignity of the ongoing impeachment proceedings,” read the petition from Tingdig Pilipinas, dated Wednesday, July 29.
The petitioners compared the complete statements made by Alan Cayetano and Diokno during the July 20 impeachment trial session to the soundbytes featured in the video.
One of Diokno’s full quotes from Impeachment Journal No. 8 reads: “And iyong tinutukoy po ninyong fishing expedition, iyon ay maaaring sabihin nating nangyari only if the party requesting the evidence or documents ay nagbabakasakali lang – baka may makuha tayo dito. In our case, I have to disagree that there was any sort of fishing expedition because based on what the Committee on Justice and later the plenary of the House found was sufficient, there was enough cause to proceed with the case.”
In the spliced video, only a small section of his quote was included: “nagbabakasakali lang – baka may makuha tayo dito.”
[Translation: What you’re referring to as a fishing expedition, this is only the case if the party requesting the evidence or documents is gambling on finding something there.]
The post has since raised concerns about Pia Cayetano’s impartiality as a senator-judge.
The petitioners argued that Cayetano had violated the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability as a lawyer and an officer of the court because by omitting portions of Diokno’s statements to invert the meaning of his statements, she had engaged in an “artifice designed to deceive the viewing public into believing that Rep. Diokno had confessed to an improper legal maneuver.”
They also said Cayetano violated her oath as a senator-judge to hand out impartial justice as her sharing of the video exposed her bias for the Duterte camp.
The petitioners said Cayetano’s post had done institutional damage by eroding public confidence in the neutrality of senator-judges.
“We respectfully submit that the weaponization of edited media is malign in and of itself, but doing so while serving as a senator-judge in an impeachment court, at the expense of a fellow lawyer and lawmaker, is breathtakingly reprehensible,” the group said.
Newswatch Plus has reached out to Sen. Pia Cayetano for comment.
