(Eagle News) — Senator JV Ejercito on Monday (March 6) said that the Senate hearing on the testimony of retired police officer Arturo Lascanas should not be used as a platform to destabilize the present government, particularly to oust President Rodrigo Duterte.
In a hearing by the Senate committee on public order on the testimony of retired police officer Arturo Lascanas, Ejercito pointed out that some of the people behind Lascanas when he changed his story to pin down President Duterte, are the same people who also pushed for the ouster and impeachment of his father, former President Joseph Estrada.
Ejercito pointed to lawyers of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) who are lawyering for Lascanas at present, were the same lawyers who helped in the prosecution of the impeachment trial of his father, former President Estrada.
The senator said he hoped “that the senate should not be used for any destabilization plot.”
“This has happened before, para lang ako na-deja vu,” Ejercito said.
Senator Panfilo Lacson then told Ejercito, “maybe the proper word is traumatized.”
During the hearing, Ejercito particularly pointed out that FLAG lawyers Jose Manuel Diokno and Arno Sanidad were the same lawyers who stood for former Ilocos Sur Governor Chavit Singson.
Lascanas also claimed that he had gone to some priests before he decided to return to the Senate with his changed testimony. The Catholic clergy are also among those critical of President Duterte. They also then supported the impeachment of former President Estrada.
On February 20, 2017, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV presented Lascanas in a press conference at the Senate
During the Feb. 20 press conference, Trillanes and FLAG lawyers told reporters that Lascanas’ testimony can be used for a case
of impeachment against President Duterte.
After the press conference, Senator Leila de Lima held her own press briefing the next day claiming that Lascanas’ change in testimony was proof that Duterte was indeed behind the Davao Death Squad. She then asked the public to go out in the streets and do another “people power” against President Duterte.
She then called Duterte a “mass murderer” and a “dictator,” and cited what happened in the 1986 People Power where the late President Ferdinand Marcos was ousted in a bloodless revolt.
Her call, however, seemed not to have been heeded by the people as only about 1,000 to 1,500 people showed up at the People Power monument on February 25, where 1986 EDSA personalities and other critics of President Duterte, including former President Benigno Aquino III and Vice-President Leni Robredo, also showed up. During the event, the group mostly criticized alleged human rights violations in the Duterte administration, including the government’s war on drugs.
Malacañang on Sunday issued a statement saying that the change in Lascanas’ statement is part of an ouster plot against the Duterte administration.
