Senator Antonio Trillanes IV will finally be “fired” by Senator Richard Gordon, claimed a certain blog.
A certain Alon Dy posted an article on August 31 on a blog called socialnewsmedia.online about how Gordon would file an ethics complaint against Trillanes after the latter called the Senate blue ribbon committee ‘comite de absuelto’ during the Senate probe into the P6.4 billion worth of shabu smuggled from China into the Philippines.
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Dy, expressing his opinion, said, “I think many Filipinos already complained about Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and why he remained in the senate when all he could do is to produce a fake evidence. I think it’s time for the senators to oust Trillanes from his office. Right now!”
While it is true that Trillanes did have heated arguments with his fellow senators, as Dy narrated in his blog, what we took issue with was his misleading headline.
It is not up to Gordon to “fire” Trillanes. What he could do, and what he already did at 7:44 pm on September 4, was file an ethics complaint against Trillanes before the Senate ethics committee led by Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III. Gordon filed the complaint due to Trillanes’ “continuous, unabated, unparliamentary acts, language, and conduct.” The recommendation on whether to reprimand, suspend or expel Trillanes will be left to the Senate ethics committee, not Gordon.
But the misleading article has already been shared over 3,000 times by the Facebook pages of Alon Calinao Dy and PilipiKnows.
Fired 1, 2
In 2016, Kabayan party-list Rep. Harry Roque also filed an ethics complaint against Senator Leila de Lima seeking her expulsion from the Senate for allegedly making money out of the illegal drug trade in the Bilibid.
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In 2014, Senator Franklin Drilon said that Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Ramon Revilla may be expelled from the Senate after they were charged for pork barrel misuse. The three senators were suspended from performing their state functions for 90 days during the hearing about their involvement in the pork barrel scam.
When a Change.org petition calling for the three senators to resign from Office started in 2014, Senator Chiz Escudero said that before expelling or suspending the senators, “the Senate should first form the ethics committee” so their “fellow senators will be given the venue to air their side.”
It is indeed up to the Senate ethics committee to decide how to punish the senators facing an ethics complaint, which makes the blog from socialnewsmedia.online misleading.
Sources: (rappler.com) (inquirer.net) (philstar.com)
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