Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson wrote a strongly-worded letter to Sen. Rodante Marcoleta denouncing the latter’s claim he altered a video that showed the latter’s controversial statement about giving up the Kalayan Group of Islands (KIG).

The video, which was posted in Lacson’s Facebook account last February 5, supposedly “contains a compilation of spliced videos that portrays this representation as one that advocates the surrender of a portion of the Philippine territory,” according to Marcoleta.

Lacson cited Marcoleta’s remarks in his Ganang Mamamayan Program last Feb. 13, 2025 where he made specific statements, claiming that he “edited” parts of it to malign him.

The former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief rejected this saying that the video was an excerpt from the official live broadcast of the Commission on Appointments (CA) hearing.

“These accusations are entirely baseless and constitute malicious imputation of wrongdoing. Hence, your overtures regarding a potential ethics complaint constitute an act of bad faith,” Lacson said in his letter to Marcoleta.

“Your claims, predicated on demonstrably false and defamatory assertions, provide no legitimate basis for a filing of an ethics complaint, or any complaint for that matter,” he said.

Moreover, Lacson said Marcoleta’s claim he misinterpreted his statements—"while simultaneously ignoring identical news reports, commentaries, and public outcry that affirm the accuracy of the video excerpt”—clearly demonstrates a targeted campaign against him.

“Hence, any perceived injury to reputation or public ‘backlash’ is primarily attributable to the original, publicly broadcast statements of the speaker, rather than the content posted on the ‘Ping Lacson’ Facebook Page,” the Senate president pro tempore said.

“Attempting to shift responsibility to a platform that merely shared publicly available government proceedings si misplaced. Afterall, public officials, when speaking in an official capacity during deliberations and hearings, are accountable for their own statements - in whole or in part - and the public response that may follow,” Lacson also said.