Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday tagged as “squid tactics” the threat of Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II to lodge charges against her.

“Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre is desperately resorting to squid tactics rather than answering the accusations squarely lodged against him,” Hontiveros said in a statement, following Aguirre’s pronouncement that, aside from criminal and civil charges, he would also file an ethics complaint against her.

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In a privilege speech in the Senate last Monday, the opposition senator demanded Aguirre’s resignation for allegedly plotting cases against her, as shown in a photo, inadvertently taken by a photographer, of Aguirre’s text conversation with a certain “Cong. Jing.”

Following this, Aguirre said Hontiveros invaded his right to privacy by showing to the public the contents of the text message. He also raised a possible conspiracy between Hontiveros and the photographer.

Hontiveros, meanwhile, reiterated that there was no violation of his privacy because there was no intent to capture the “shameful and deceitdul” text conversation.

“Let me respectfully enlighten the Justice secretary. There is no violation of his privacy. The shameful and deceitful text conversation was simply inadverdently caught by someone’s camera lens,” Hontiveros said.

“Thus, there was no intent to tap or intercept his messages,” she added. “There was no reasonable expectation of privacy. The law is clear: What is prohibited is willfully and knowingly committing any acts constituting wiretapping.”

Despite Aguirre’s threat, Hontiveros expressed confidence that he was “chasing a dead end” – though she would be ready to face any charges.

“Secretary Aguirre is chasing a dead end,” she said. “But if the Justice secretary wants to file cases against me, go ahead. See you in court, Mr. Aguirre.”

/atm

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