Senator Manny Pacquiao on Wednesday, Sept. 1 said he would immediately take action should an ethics complaint is filed against Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go.
Pacquiao is head of the Senate Committee on Ethics which handles complaints against members of the Upper Chamber.
“As chairman of the ethics committee, kung may mga reklamo po na mai-submit sa committee ko po, mararapat lamang na aksyunan ko po (if there is a complaint submitted to my committee, it’s only right that I take immediate action),” Pacquiao said in an interview on ANC’s Headstart.
Both Go and Pacquiao are partymates in the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban). However, Pacquiao, who is planning to run for president in the upcoming May 2022 elections is backed by Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III’s faction, while Go is being pushed to be the party’s standard bearer by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi’s group.
On Tuesday, Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, said at least four senators are in favor of investigating Go’s links with former budget undersecretary Christopher Lao who was tagged in the questionable purchase of COVID-19 supplies.
Go had confirmed Lao was a “volunteer election lawyer” during President Duterte’s campaign in the 2016 presidential elections, but denies his involvement in the Department of Health (DOH) transfer of P42-billion to the Department of Budget and Management’s procurement service (DBM-PS), saying Lao does not directly report to him.
“Dapat pong tanungin kasi nalilink po ang pangalan niya kay Christopher Lao at mabigyan ng linaw ang taumbayan kung sino si Christopher Lao at ano ang relasyon niya kay Senator Go (We need to ask because his name is being linked to Christopher Lao, and he should shed light on who is Lao and what is his relationship with Senator Go),” he stressed.
The boxing icon-turned senator said Go should not be offended when senators ask him questions related to Lao.
“Ginagampanan lang naming ang tungkulin naming para mabigyan ng clarification ang lahat ng issue (We are only doing our mandate to clarify the issue),” he said.