Senate panel set to tackle Silent No More blog post vs. Duterte allies

 One of the resource persons invited to a Senate public information committee hearing is expected to reveal the person behind the Silent No More PH blog, a critic of the Duterte administration.

“May isa kaming resource person who said na meron siyang pasabog na ilalabas tungkol doon,” Senator Grace Poe, chair of the Senate panel, told reporters in an interview Tuesday.

“Pero there are also certain considerations like the Data Privacy Act kaya baka maging executive session ‘yun,” Poe said.

Poe’s committee will hold a hearing on fake news Wednesday to be attended by officials of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), including Undersecretary Joel Egco and Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson.

Also confirmed to attend are RJ Nieto of Thinking Pinoy, lawyer Trixie Cruz-Angeles, Franco Mabanta, former solicitor general Florin Hilbay, and lawyer Antonio La Viña, former dean of the Ateneo School of Government.

Meanwhile, invited to attend are former presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, and former undersecretaries Abigail Valte and Manolo Quezon III. They have yet to confirm their attendance as of posting time.

Last week, several senators from the majority bloc cried foul for being targeted by the Silent No More PH when it was supposedly made to appear that they purposely did not sign the Senate resolution urging the Duterte administration to address the spate of senseless killings, especially of children.

The seven senators who did not sign the resolution are Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto, Richard Gordon, Gringo Honasan, Manny Pacquiao, Cynthia Villar, and Miguel Zubiri.

The senators took exception on the statement labeling them as “Malacañang dogs.”

The resolution called on the government to "undertake the necessary steps to stop the senseless killings, especially of our children, and to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, to determine the institutional reasons, if any, that give rise to such killings."