(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday defended Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre after Senator Risa Hontiveros made public a text message the justice secretary supposedly sent, urging a former lawmaker to “expedite cases” against her.
“That is so naive,” Duterte said.
He said no one was, after all, allowed to “make an inference” about someone who was only exercising his constitutional right.
Duterte was apparently referring to Aguirre’s right to private communications, which the justice secretary himself raised to defend himself from Hontiveros’ calls for him to resign over the text.
Hontiveros has argued the act of texting the message itself showed partiality, which she said was unbecoming of government officials and employees.
“When two persons talk and you are not a party to it,do not draw conclusions,” Duterte said.
On Monday, Hontiveros made public the text message by showing an enhanced version of a picture showing Aguirre texting during a Senate hearing into the death of Kian Loyd delos Santos on Sept. 5.
Hontiveros claimed Aguirre had sent the text message to former Rep. Jacinto Paras, now a Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption member.
Violation of constitutional right
Without admitting anything, Aguirre decried Hontiveros’ move in a strongly worded statement the day after.
He said the fact that the violation of his constitutional right was done during a privilege speech made it even more “despicable” and “diabolical.”
A privilege speech is considered privileged communication under the law, which means that anything said in such cannot be used against the person who made the speech.
“I am saddened, enraged and more importantly, afraid of how our rights to the privacy of our communication can easily be disregarded and trampled upon,” Aguirre said, noting that he was considering filing charges against all those responsible for the act.