MANILA — Sen. Panfilo Lacson pushed back against remarks made by Sen. Pia Cayetano regarding the minority bloc following last week’s shooting incident inside the Senate building.

Lacson issued the statement after Cayetano lamented that no one from the minority bloc checked on her and other majority bloc members after the incident.

In a post on X, Lacson questioned how members of the minority could reach out when some majority bloc senators were allegedly linking them to the shooting.

“Quote of the day: ‘Wala man lang nangumusta sa amin!’ Paano mo ba naman kukumustahin ang mga masasayang nagkakainan, nagkakape at naka FB Live pa para pagbintangan ang minority bloc na may alam daw sa putukan ng baril sa Senado?” Lacson said.

The senator was referring to Cayetano’s emotional reaction to Sen. Risa Hontiveros during Wednesday’s session, where Hontiveros called on the Senate leadership to investigate the circumstances surrounding the shooting incident.

Lacson noted that Hontiveros had urged Senate leaders to “act quickly and appropriately” and investigate the “chaotic situation” instead of acting as though nothing had happened.

Cayetano, however, accused the minority bloc of “trivializing the incident.”

Last week, Lacson also rejected insinuations made by some members of the majority bloc, including Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano and Sen. Imee Marcos, that minority senators left the Senate early on the day of the shooting because they supposedly knew something would happen.

According to Lacson, members of the minority bloc left early because the session ended ahead of schedule and the planned caucus for all senators was later converted into a majority caucus.

“It is an unfair and malicious insinuation that we in the minority bloc went home early and left them behind because we knew something would happen. That is quite far from the truth. There is no basis for that because no one knew what would happen that night,” Lacson said in an interview on True FM last week.