Statement of Senators Frank Drilon, Risa Hontiveros, and Kiko Pangilinan on VP Leni Robredo's successful efforts during the COVID pandemic

"We are outraged by the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission's plan to investigate Vice President Leni Robredo just because her efforts to extend assistance to Filipino families struggling to make both ends meet during this national crisis may embarrass the government.

When has helping people become a crime? Is it a crime to look for resources so that our health care workers are protected when they attend to the sick? Is it a crime to offer free shuttle vehicles so that our essential service providers in this unprecedented shutdown of business operations can get to work?

No one has the monopoly of helping alleviate the sufferings of our people. In this time of national crisis, we expect everyone to support all public and private initiatives in responding quickly and in staying to help until the curse of the coronavirus disease pandemic is finally defeated.

Saving lives is not a contest but everyone's business. We cannot allow ourselves to sit by and watch our people risking their own safety, getting sick, and worse, dying without adequate medical attention. We cannot afford partisan politics and bureaucratic juggernauts to lead us into national paralysis.

We have to be at the forefront in responding to the needs and demands of our people during this most trying time of our nation's history. We need to ensure that help is on the way even under extraordinary circumstances. We hope the PACC and everyone in government see it that way too."