Claire mocks Pia’s outburst

MANILA, Philippines — “Medyo ‘ouch’ siguro.”

This was Palace press officer Claire Castro’s take on Sen. Pia Cayetano’s emotional outburst at the Senate plenary on Wednesday, saying the senator appeared to have taken personally Sen. Risa Hontiveros’ remark that it seemed nothing had happened after the May 13 shooting incident inside the chamber.

In her personal vlog on May 20, which has gone viral, the Palace official slammed Cayetano’s emotional speech in hitting Hontiveros for her criticism on the Senate’s apparent “return to normalcy” following the incident.

Castro said Cayetano apparently missed Hontiveros’ point.

“Sen. Risa Hontiveros started this, it seems to have hit a nerve... medyo ‘ouch’ siguro,” she said in Filipino.

Castro mimicked Cayetano’s delivery of the line, “Hindi nyo kami kinamusta. Takot na takot kami (None of you checked on us. We were very scared).”

She accused Cayetano of shifting the focus to her colleagues instead of questioning her brother, Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano.

Castro said the Senate President appeared to have “tolerated” Senate sergeant-at-arms Mao Aplasca’s actions, after he told him of his sighting of the presence of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents inside the GSIS building, where the Senate also occupies a large area.

The Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms tried to prevent the NBI from arresting Sen. Ronald dela Rosa, who is subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for crimes against humanity linked to the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.