Senator Sherwin Gatchalian engaged netizens on social media in a “word war” and even called them “stupid” and “deranged” in his post on his personal Twitter account while he was in the United States.
The “foul languages” were posted by the administration senator in his Twitter account “@stgatchalian” a few hours before 2018.
When a Senate reporter asked if his Twitter account was hacked, Gatchalian answered “No.” When another reporter raised the same question, Gatchalian merely replied, “daming nang-iinis e.”
Questioned by another reporter if it was his real account where the “foul remarks” appeared, the senator gave an affirmative response.
The exchange with some netizens began when Gatchalian, using his personal Twitter account, replied “The nation already lost its soul in the last 6 years” to Maria Ressa’s Rappler article about the Liberal Party.
When the netizens labelled him “balimbing” political turncoat) and “trapo” (traditional politician), the senator responded, “Gago ka (You’re stupid)!” He also lashed back at another online critic as “ulol (deranged).”
To support their claim that Gatchalian is “balimbing,” netizens lifted some of his posts from his Twitter account @stgwtchalian.
The senator posted on May 3, 2012, “Thanks to PNoy and his anti-corruption efforts, the Philippines is now getting the needed exposure. Let’s continue the gains.”
On July 3, 2011, Gatchlian posted, “Congrats to PNoy’s admin for fighting human teafficking, Hillary Clinton just commended PH in CNN for the big improvement.”
On June 30, 2011, Gatchlian posted, “I think we’re on our way to progress. PNoy is changing a culture of corruption. This will take time. But we already began.”
Another netizen reminded Gatchalian not to say those words because his salary came from them, such that they deserve all the respect.
Senator JV Ejercito came to the defense of Gatchalian who he referred to as his “seatmate” in the Senate.
Ejercito wrote on his personal Twitter account—“in the incident 8nvolving my co-seatmate Sen. @stgatchalian, only goes to show that we are also human, we got hurt and affected too. What is scary is if we public servants become immune from bashings and attacks from rabid haters, then we become insensitive & are like political robots.’’
In another post, Ejercito told Gatchalian, “Bro @stgatchalian, those bashers, haters and rabids make me work even harder. They keep me on my toes! i thank them because I have become a responsible Senator, because of them.”
“We both have proof of what is public service all about, both San Juan and Valenzuela progressed and developed economically under our respective administrations! That is concrete proof of how we were able to uplift the living conditions of our constituents,” added Ejercito.
Another post of Ejercito read “Brod, don’t make patol of trolls and rabids. Cool ka lang. They are making this in a purpose. You have done a good job in your almost two years in the Senate.”