MANILA, Philippines — Amid death threats being sent to Senator Risa Hontiveros, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said he is worried about her safety.
Hontiveros visited the wake of Mima Alicia Lipata, a YouTube vlogger who was gunned down last week.
“I was able to talk to Sen. Risa, and I told her to be careful and to put precautionary measures, and I told her whatever the Senate can provide, like security or intelligence, she can just tell us,” Gatchalian told reporters in Filipino on Friday.
“We should not ignore death threats because we never know what might happen… it’s just part of our job,” he added.
Gatchalian said the Senate is ready to help and to add security for Hontiveros.
“We continue to talk to Sen. Risa, just to make sure she is safe,” Gatchalian said.
The Senate chief said the priority is to protect all the senators and to take these death threats seriously, citing that when they led the hearing on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), he and Hontiveros were also receiving death threats.
“Last time we had this, it was when we were led the POGO hearing, where both of us had death threats,” he said.
This hearing involved the issue surrounding former Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, who is currently incarcerated.
In an X post on Friday, Hontiveros thanked the Senate president.
Lipata is known as a supporter of the Marcos administration and was also critical of Vice President Sara Duterte. The two gunmen who shot the vlogger in her Caloocan home were both arrested. The motive is still unknown, as of press time, but it was believed to be a difference in political opinion.
Hontiveros condemned the online threats against her, following the death of Lipata, and the senator alerted the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) regarding these.
