Senator Risa Hontiveros has called for a full, independent and unobstructed accounting of the recent unfortunate events that unfolded in the Senate this week, particularly the shooting incident and the predawn disappearance of one of their colleagues.

Hontiveros made the call as she criticized the “bad faith actors” in the Senate whom she said are “trying very hard to make this controversial event” about the members of the minority who were clueless on what was about to transpire on Wednesday evening and the subsequent days.

“There is only one reason some bad faith actors are trying very hard to make this controversial event about me and other Minority senators and the times we went home,” the senator said in a Facebook post on Thursday.

“All this for a man who simply doesn’t want to face the law. That’s it. That’s the whole story,” she pointed out. 

“We need to get to the bottom of this. The Filipino people deserve a full, independent and unobstructed accounting. Walang takipan (No cover-up),” she stressed.

Hontiveros lamented how the Senate “was turned into a shooting range.”

“That is desecration, not just of our walls, but of the trust placed in that institution. What a historic low for our country,” she stressed.

“We, senators, are mere stewards of the Senate. The Senate belongs to the Filipino people, so no one gets to act like they own the place, much less barricade themselves inside it,” she added.

Dela Rosa should submit to authorities

That is why, she said, she hopes Dela Rosa would finally submit to authorities and discuss the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against him. 

“Kaya sana, para maiwasan ang panibagong karahasan at tensyon sa loob man o labas ng Senado, mag submit na at makipagtulungan si Sen. Dela Rosa sa mga alagad ng batas ukol sa kanyang warrant (That’s why I hope, to prevent further violence and tension inside and out of the Senate, Dela Rosa will submit and coordinate with authorities about his warrant),” she reiterated. 

Earlier, Hontiveros and four other senators in the new Senate minority bloc, filed a resolution urging Dela Rosa to surrender to the ICC, which has issued a warrant for his arrest as an alleged co-perpetrator in former president Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.