(UPDATE) SEN. Nancy Binay on Monday filed an ethics complaint against Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano for insulting her during a public hearing.
The two senators had a heated argument on July 3 during the Senate inquiry, led by Cayetano, on the increased cost of the new Senate building being constructed in Taguig City.
Binay said Cayetano insulted her during the hearing, which she claimed the latter conducted to go after her family.
She slammed Cayetano for calling her names such as “nabuang” (gone crazy) and “Marites,” a street lingo that means “gossip monger” or “nosy.”
In her 15-page complaint, Binay said the Rules of the Senate are clear: “Acts and languages which offend a Senator, or any public institution shall be deemed unparliamentary; and no Senator, under any circumstances shall use offensive or improper language against another Senator or against any public institution.”
Binay accused Cayetano of slander, abuse of rights, and violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability and the Magna Carta of Women. She also said he committed conduct “unbecoming of a public officer.”
“Respondent (Cayetano) repeatedly acted in an unparliamentary manner and used offensive, derogatory, and improper language against me during the subject public hearing,” she said.
Binay wanted to hold Cayetano “liable for all of his unparliamentary conduct and that the appropriate sanctions and penalties be imposed upon him, commensurate to the gravity of his offenses.”
The senator said she needed to file the complaint “for the sake of her children,” who might be bullied in school because Cayetano called her “crazy.”
She said the young Binays experienced bullying in 2015 when Cayetano probed the alleged overpriced Makati City Hall building.
“So, this time around, I would not allow it to happen again,” she said in a briefing after she filed the complaint, a copy of which she submitted to Cayetano’s office.
Sen. Francis Tolentino heads the Senate Committee on Ethics. However, the panel has yet to convene, and members have to be appointed.
Cayetano conducted the probe as chairman of the Senate Committee on Accounts overseeing the expenses of the Senate.
He succeeded Binay as accounts panel head after a coup that installed Sen. Francis Escudero as Senate president.
Cayetano said Binay’s complaint would not prosper.
“She knew that nothing would come out from her complaint. I can also file [a similar complaint] because what she did was unethical. You are not a member [of the committee] and yet you try to meddle [in the inquiry]. The chairman was still talking, and then you wanted to talk first,” he said.
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