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Neophyte lawmaker Eric Yap lashed out at blogger Jover Laurio, also known as PAB or Pinoy Ako Blog, after she criticized him over a testing laboratory in Benguet being named after him. 

Yap – who is just on his 5th month as chair of the powerful House committee on appropriations – decided the best way to start the budget hearing of the Office of the President on Monday, September 14, was to directly address Laurio’s criticism of him. 

He cited a recent Facebook post of Laurio that implied Yap had no business having a facility of the Benguet General Hospital named after him when he was among the lawmakers who wanted to rename the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). 

Yap said he used his personal funds to have the laboratory built in Benguet. Though he represents the ACT-CIS party-list group in Congress, Yap has been named legislative caretaker of Benguet. (READ: House names non-Cordilleran as Benguet caretaker congressman)

The congressman claimed he did not know the hospital management had decided to name the laboratory after him.

This, despite photos showing Yap himself being present during the ribbon-cutting ceremony in the lab. He was photographed holding up a sign that read, “Benguet General Hospital Molecular Biology Laboratory Eric Yap Building.”

Yap said he already asked the management to remove his name from the facility. 

It was at this point that the party-list lawmaker decided to hurl insults at Laurio, a critic of President Rodrigo Duterte and a known supporter of the opposition movement against him.

“Ngayon po, ang akin lang po, para kay Jover, nakita ko po ‘yong page niya eh. Lahat na lang po puro galit, puro maling impormasyon. Iisa lang po ang tama sa impormasyong pinost ‘nya, kung saan mayrooon doon na mukha niya na pinapakita niya ano po ang itsura ng COVID kung ito ay magiging tao,” Yap said. 

(For me, this is addressed to Jover, I saw her page. It’s filled with anger, wrong information. There’s only one correct thing in her posts, the one where you can see her face and she is showing that this is the face of COVID-19 if it were to become a person.)

Troll style

Laurio is unfazed, however, even clapping back at Yap on her Facebook wall. She said the congressman seems no different from the trolls paid to throw insults at her online.

“‘Yong banat niyo sa akin, may similarity sa banat ng mga trolls (Your insult against me is similar to the insults of trolls),” she said.

Yap is an ally of the President, whose government has faced intense public backlash for its mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is also part of the inner circle of presidential son and House Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte.

This is not the first time that a Duterte ally has resorted to hurling insults when asked to explain their pet projects.

Last year, Senator Bong Go ridiculed the looks of veteran Albay 1st District Representative Edcel Lagman when the latter tagged the Malasakit Centers, Go’s brainchild, as a “partisan tool.”

What’s that they say – birds of the same feather flock together? – Rappler.com