Pimentel insists there was no Angara-Lacson shouting match

No heated exchange of words ever took place and they remain civil to each other.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said this yesterday as he insisted feuding opposition Senators Panfilo Lacson and Edgardo Angara have not engaged in a shouting match during a caucus of the minority bloc last Monday.

Pimentel took exception to reports that the two feuding opposition lawmakers shouted at each other during the closed-door meeting.

He branded the reports as "false and malicious" in the effort of some from the media to put a spin in the ongoing feud between Lacson and Angara.

"Unfortunately, there was a spin attached to that meeting by people with ulterior motives," Pimentel said. "There was no shouting match in that closed-door meeting. There was none. It was a very civil meeting," Pimentel said.

He said Lacson and Angara engaged each other into a "frank and dignified" exchange of views in front of their colleagues in the opposition.

The two had a falling out shortly before the May election after Angara decided to junk his own party mate in favor of popular movie actor Fernando Poe Jr. in the search for an opposition standard-bearer.

Both Poe and Lacson ended up losing to President Arroyo.

During the three-month presidential election campaign, Angara and Lacson traded charges of being agents of the Arroyo administration who were out to divide the opposition.

Angara had even likened Lacson to a modern-day "makapili" (war time collaborator) who "sold the opposition down the river" in the last elections.

Pimentel, for his part, blamed the media for trying to put a spin in the ongoing feud between Lacson and Angara.

He said reports of the shouting match between the two opposition lawmakers occurring at his office were "not necessarily accurate."

"This was stupid precisely I was the one trying to prevent the quarrel from getting out of hand. The rift has endangered into name-calling which is deplorable," Pimentel said.

He pointed out the efforts of the minority in trying to patch up their differences and forge a working relationship between the two legislators.

Pimentel also denied that Sen. Luisa "Loi" Ejercito had to restrain Lacson from lunging at Angara.

But he admitted sending a text message to both Lacson and Angara to "cool it."

"During the meeting last Monday, Angara questioned Lacson’s loyalty to the opposition and Lacson gave his side," Pimentel narrated.

"Angara said that he was giving Lacson the benefit of the doubt and he is willing to leave things as they are. In other words, we can work within the minority but I am certainly saddened by this development," he said.

Angara earlier denied a heated argument between him and Lacson occurred during the meeting.

Angara said that though they had previously agreed that everything discussed at the meeting should be kept confidential, he said he was forced to speak up when Lacson talked to the media about it.

This prompted their opposition colleague Sen. Sergio Osmeña III to comment on saying that Angara is apparently confusing the minority in the Senate with the opposition.

He said any lawmaker can belong to the minority without necessarily belonging to the opposition.

Osmeña had pointed out that since Lacson did not count himself as a member of the majority, he automatically becomes a member of the minority.

Pimentel said yesterday he would consider Lacson as part of the minority despite his differences with Angara.

"There are only two species in the Senate: either you are with the majority or the minority. That being the case, we consider Lacson as part of the minority and we value his participation in the discussion of what is good for the nation from the point of view of the minority," Pimentel said.