Opposition Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan on Wednesday stressed he will not quit his position as chairperson of the Senate constitutional amendments committee due to the demand of online trolls, but is ready to give up the post anytime if asked by the chamber’s leadership.
Pangilinan believes that online trolls are behind the #OustKiko campaign, which was among the top trending subjects on Twitter as of press time, having been used in more than 10,000 tweets.
“Besides, the argument that the problem of COVID-19 will be solved by Charter change is quite frankly out of this world,” he pointed out.
Senate leaders also dismissed the trending topic calling for the ouster of Pangilinan for the Charter Change or “Chacha” discussions to move forward.
“I’m the Senate President and I have never heard of such (Chacha initiative). Mabuti pa sila, dami nilang alam (it seems they know more than we do),” said Senate President Vicente Sotto III.
The idea could just be an invention of netizens, Sotto added.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon also believes some paid “keyboard warriors” have their hands on what he described as “feeble effort” by the one managing the “troll farm” to amend the Constitution.
Sen. Joel Villanueva, who belongs to the majority bloc, said there is definitely no talks about any change of leadership in any Senate committee.
He said no member of the majority said they wanted the chairmanship of Pangilinan’s committee.