Former Senate president Vicente Sotto III on Wednesday said the recent leadership change in the Senate may have been tied to the chamber’s Blue Ribbon Committee investigation into alleged flood control anomalies.
In a radio interview, Sotto rejected claims that the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, chaired by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, had been covering up irregularities in the probe.
Instead, Sotto said the effort to replace the Senate leadership may have been aimed at removing Lacson from the committee chairship as the investigation began touching influential figures.
“What I heard from some of our colleagues was the opposite. It was not about a cover-up. Rather, they felt the investigation was digging too deeply and affecting some of our colleagues,” Sotto said.
Sotto made the statement after Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa reportedly cited dissatisfaction with the Blue Ribbon probe as among the reasons behind his support for the leadership change that installed Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano as Senate president.
Sotto defended Lacson and denied accusations that the committee was shielding personalities linked to the controversy.
“That is not correct. I cannot agree that there was a cover-up. Who exactly would be protected?” he said.
He pointed out that the committee had released a partial progress report and that the investigation itself had implicated powerful personalities.
“Who are they protecting? Martin is already implicated,” Sotto said, apparently referring to former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.
If dissatisfaction with the Blue Ribbon investigation was indeed the reason behind the Senate leadership change, then the real objective may have been to remove Lacson from the committee.
“And the only way to remove Senator Lacson as chairman is to remove me as Senate President,” he said.
Sotto said such a scenario would be “more truthful” than claims that the Blue Ribbon Committee had been suppressing findings in the flood control investigation.