An impeachment court session turned personal for Senator-judge Pia Cayetano this week as she told colleagues she now worries about her own freedom, pointing to the treatment of several members of the panel as evidence that the Senate is being squeezed while it sits in judgment of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Her own account centered on a recent trip abroad. Cayetano said she traveled to Singapore to cheer on a national team, only to learn afterward that the head of the National Bureau of Investigation had spoken publicly about tracking her whereabouts and knowing when she planned to fly home. That framing, she argued, cast her as though she were on the run.
“Am I fugitive? Bakit may ganito? I will tell you all now, am I pressured? I am! I am! I fear for my liberty,” she said.
The senator was careful to root her remarks in what she claimed to have witnessed directly rather than speculation. “I can only speak for what I observed. We have two senators in jail, if the one senator would be allowed to come here I know Senator Estrada would like to speak on how he felt pressured. Another senator is in hiding because he was threatened na maglalabas ng ICC warrant pero pagkakaalam ko hindi pa niya nakita ‘yung ICC warrant,” she said.
She then broadened the list, describing a colleague sidelined by illness who had reportedly been warned of looming charges. “And then a fourth senator is on medical leave but she also was told na ma-fi-filehan siya ng plunder cases. Then I speak for myself, I went to Singapore to support a national team. And then I have to hear NBI director making statements that make it appear that I’m a common fugitive na na-monitor niya kung nasaan ako, at meron siyang information kung anong araw ako babalik,” she continued.
The backdrop to her complaint is a widening probe into the country’s staging of the 2019 Southeast Asian Games. NBI Director Melvin Matibag has said the bureau is examining alleged irregularities in the roughly P10-billion sports complex built at New Clark City in Tarlac, with investigators looking at unliquidated funds, projects awarded without competitive bidding, and a cauldron whose cost drew scrutiny. Her brother, Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, chaired the organizing committee that ran the games, and Matibag has indicated the senator could be named a respondent in charges the bureau intends to endorse to the Department of Justice.
The Cayetano siblings flew to Singapore on September 9 and returned the following weekend, a departure that drew comment because it coincided with the NBI’s preparations. Pia Cayetano has maintained that her purpose was to back the Philippine national padel squad ahead of the Asian Games in Japan. Matibag, for his part, told reporters he saw no legal obstacle to the trip while confirming that his office had been keeping tabs on the pair’s movements.
The detentions Cayetano referred to are real. Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta are both held over separate plunder allegations, while Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa has gone into hiding as an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, tied to a crime-against-humanity case, remains unserved.
