Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano warned there is a systematic attack against the Senate given the various allegations being hurled against some senators recently amid investigations into anomalous flood control projects.

Cayetano lamented the distractions saying these diversionary tactics veer the public’s attention away from the real mastermind.

The minority leader said he believes the one orchestrating these issues against lawmakers is “more than just one person.”

“In the context of the flood control issue, you can really see that some of us are being targeted,” Cayetano said in an interview.

“I don't think there's one mastermind. I think it's a group of people who came together, maybe stumbling into it. We have some people in our minds, but we'd rather the evidence speak for it,” he added.

The lawmaker then recalled how a botched People’s Initiative campaign early last year attempted to, “buwagin ang Senado” (dissolve the Senate), strengthening his belief the current allegations hounding the members of the Senate is “part of a larger scheme by the masterminds to clear the way for their corrupt plans.”

“We all know that while the People’s Initiative was being created, they were forming this scam, not only on flood control projects. It’s surfacing one by one,”  he noted.

Cayetano, then, appealed to Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III to protect the upper chamber from institutional attacks.

“If this happened to Sen. Risa Hontiveros or to Sen. Panfilo Lacson, even though I am in the minority, I will stand firm. Why? Because there is a systematic attack against the Senate,” the minority leader said.

“The Senate President is not only the father of the Majority – he also serves as the father of the whole Senate,” he said.

“So if one member is  being attacked, whether he or she is a member of the minority, an independent senator, but the attack is foul, it’s wrong to let the whole institution suffer,” he reiterated.

He also urged the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, chaired by Lacson, to stay focused on pinning down the masterminds behind the scandal.

“Eyes on the ball tayo… Whether administration or part of the opposition, we should be united in ensuring that the mastermind is prosecuted, jailed and the money is returned and the system is reformed,” he stressed.