MANILA – Senator Panfilo Lacson denied Senator Rodante Marcoleta’s claim that his impending arrest over a plunder case is connected to the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, describing the allegation as “gaslighting.”

Marcoleta earlier claimed that the case against him had long been planned, citing Lacson’s previous remarks that nine senators could possibly be arrested and jailed.

“It’s gaslighting time once more. The mention of nine senators being possibly incarcerated was a hypothetical statement in the context of determining the base number to compute the constitutional requirement of 2/3 vote of all senators actively participating or not in the impeachment trial,” Lacson said.

Lacson said his earlier statement referred to a hypothetical scenario involving the number of senator-judges participating in an impeachment trial.

Earlier this month, he raised the possibility of the Supreme Court stepping in if the impeachment court’s composition would make conviction mathematically impossible.

“Ano ang saysay na impeachment trial kung 15 lang yung senator judges na present at pwedeng bumoto? Ano saysay? Sabi ko, formality na ang acquittal, bakit pa tayo mag-trial? So diyan dapat mag-intervene ng Korte Suprema (For what will the impeachment trial be for if only 15 senator judges can vote, and 16 votes are needed to convict? The trial could be reduced to a formality for acquittal. So the Supreme Court may need to intervene),” Lacson said in a June 18 interview on DZBB.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Marcoleta alleged that the plunder case being prepared by the Office of the Ombudsman for filing before the Sandiganbayan is intended to prevent him from exposing corruption and participating in the impeachment trial, which is scheduled to begin on July 6.

According to Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, the plunder case against Marcoleta is “for resolution” and authorities are “about to file it already.”

The case involves P75 million in gifts or donations that Marcoleta allegedly received from three individuals in January 2025 while he was serving as a congressman.