Mocha lashes back at senators

Presidential Communications Operations Office assistant secretary Mocha Uson yesterday lashed back at senators who blasted her for uploading a video that critics claimed poked fun at federalism.

Uson has ignited a firestorm after Drew Olivar, a blogger and co-host of her online show, did a suggestive dance, gestured to his crotch and chest, and shouted “I-pepe, i-dede, ipederalismo!”

Pepe is Filipino childspeak for the vagina while dede refers to breasts.

Some senators and internet users found the dance number vulgar and assailed Uson and Olivar for allegedly besmirching the ideals of federalism.

Uson tried to turn the tables on senators critical of her, saying they were “disrespecting the truth” because they tried to divert attention away from alleged poll fraud during the 2016 polls.

“I have long restrained myself from speaking against some senators. You have been fooling the people for so long,” Uson said in a Facebook post written in Filipino.

“Who is more disrespectful between us? You have large salaries but how do you spend them? I did not get anything from that federalism campaign and you accuse me of being disrespectful. You are the ones disrespecting the truth,” she added.

Uson then accused senators of trying to prevent Glenn Chong from speaking about the supposed irregularities during the 2016 elections.

“Did you benefit from the cheating? Did your friends benefit from it?” she said.

Senators have denied Uson’s claim, noting that Chong was allowed to talk three times during a Senate hearing on poll issues last Monday.

Chong, a former representative of Biliran province, has claimed that there was cheating during the 2016 polls.

During the hearing, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon cited two letters from a lawyer of vice presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stating that Chong was tapped by Marcos to represent him in the decryption of secure digital (SD) cards, a briefing of the Commission on Elections and stripping of unused consolidation/canvassing system kits and backup of SD cards last year.

Chong claimed he was only nominated by the Marcos camp but did not accept the nomination.