‘Tulakan’ tales as Cayetano, Padilla escort ‘ex-Marines’ to Senate plenary hall

An alleged pushing, blocking, and, eventually, running on the Senate staircase — this time, involving Senators Robin Padilla and Pia Cayetano. 

This was the scenario before the Alan Peter Cayetano bloc mounted a blue ribbon committee hearing to investigate flood control corruption on Thursday, June 4. 

Pia Cayetano, insisting as still having the blue ribbon committee chairmanship, called to order the hearing at the Senate plenary hall.

In her opening remarks, Cayetano alleged that she and her resource persons, the alleged 18 former Marine soldiers, were prevented from entry. The person supposedly blocking them: Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla.

“Nagulat na lang ako nakita ko dun si Secretary Jonvic Remulla, hinaharang ako (I was surprised that I saw Secretary Jonvic Remulla blocking me),” Cayetano said.

“I never thought the day would come that somebody would prevent me from entering the Senate. This is my office,” she added.

The ground floor chaos

Minutes before the start of the hearing, Cayetano and Senator Robin Padilla fetched the supposed former Marine officers at the entrance of the Senate building.

They were accommodated as guests of the Cayetanos to enter the premises, on a day when Acting Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said there is no scheduled business in the chamber. 

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The commotion occurred as they proceeded to the stairs, where Remulla surfaced. Once face-to-face, Remulla, a 6-foot-4 man, and Padilla, an action star-turned senator, were seen pushing each other.

Aside from the former soldiers, the senators’ staff and members of the media swarmed the hallway, making pushing unavoidable.

As this happened, Cayetano kept her arms on the shoulders of two former soldiers to usher them through the stairs. Once they made their way through, they ran upstairs and to the plenary hall, which was on the second floor.

“This is the Senate. This is the halls of democracy. We will hold our hearing and we will continue,” Cayetano said in her opening remarks. 

Remulla’s role in Senate

Cayetano stressed that Remulla only stood there and did not move aside. But the Cabinet official said he was only surprised that the senators and the former soldiers were coming his way, adding he was already going out of the Senate building. 

He said had to be in a defensive stance to “protect” himself from the wave of the people, since he was near a door jamb at the time. He did not describe Padilla’s action as pushing.

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Remulla rejected Cayetano’s claim that he prevented their entry, explaining that a blocking force needs 100 people. No police personnel accompanied the secretary. 

“Puwede ba akong mag-isang mag-block ng isang batalyon na tao (Can I block a battalion of people alone)?” he added. 

Remulla arrived in the Senate around 9 am, as Gatchalian conducted a press conference. He explained that he was ensuring the security outside of the Senate premises, where protesters had gathered. Around 1,300 police personnel were deployed there on Thursday.

But why is he inside the Senate building? Remulla said he had to clarify with Gatchalian whether Brice Hernandez should still be brought to the blue ribbon committee hearing. 

Cayetano also sent an invitation to Hernandez, a dismissed assistant district engineer in Bulacan, who was implicated in the flood control mess, for Thursday’s hearing. He was detained at the Quezon City Jail in Payatas.

Gatchalian told Remulla that the new blue ribbon committee, under Senator Erwin Tulfo, already wrote the Sandiganbayan to set aside the request to bring him to the Senate.

“Nagpa-panic ang mga tao sa BJMP (Bureau of Jail Management and Penology) kung anong gagawin,” the interior chief said, adding that he wanted to see the letter for himself.

(The BJMP personnel were panicking about what to do.)

With Tulfo holding his blue ribbon committee hearing on June 8, will the similar chaos happen again? – Rappler.com