THE Partido Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) faction identified with former President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday branded as “harassment and violation of one’s right to free speech” the House Tri-Committee’s (Tri-Comm) persistent summons to vloggers and social media influencers to attend their hearings.
Answering the Tri-Comm of the House of Representatives, PDP-Laban said the right of free speech and expression is guaranteed and enshrined in the Constitution.
“PDP Laban decries any direct or subtle attempt to curtail or derail free speech. Now more than ever, this right is critical in demanding accountability for the massive graft and corruption and other abuses and irregularities in government,” it added.
PDP said the time and resources of the House are better spent on improving the lives of the ordinary Filipino which is getting worse every day instead of wasting it on “useless hearings” which the party felt were just meant to intimidate and harass Duterte’s supporters.
The group also decried how the House supposedly failed to protect the Constitutional rights of their resource persons during the QuadComm hearings where the resource persons were detained after the answers they gave were not in line with what the lawmakers wanted to hear.
“This type of harassment against ordinary Filipinos must stop and the House must focus its time and resources on more pressing problems afflicting the country, like the increase in the prices of basic commodities and the worsening law and order situation,” PDP said.
The Tri-Comm, composed of the Public Order and Safety, Information and Communications Technology, and Public Information committees, had issued show cause orders to the Philippine offices of Facebook and TikTok after their representatives failed to attend the second hearing.
