Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Monday said he would leave it to the Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation whether former president Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial remarks about killing 15 senators to make way for his nine senatorial candidates have merits or not.

Pimentel, a former party-mate of Duterte, however, raised that an individual’s “obsession” with death and killing may point to a potentially serious personality disorder.

“Let DOJ and NBI do their work. They should know if given the facts whether a crime has been committed or not. If there is no crime whatsoever then let us drop the issue,” he said when asked for a comment on Duterte’s remarks.

He added: “However, a person’s obsession with the topic of death and killing, mentioning it every time he or she speaks, is a worrying sign of a serious personality disorder.”

Last week, Duterte “joked” about killing 15 senators to vacate more seats for his senatorial candidates under his party, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan, or PDP-Laban.

“Now that there are many of them (aiming for the Senate). What should we do? Why don't we just kill the senators now so we can vacate their seats? If we can kill about 15 senators, we’ll all get in,” he said during the PDP-Laban proclamation rally at Club Filipino in San Juan City.

“But that’s unfortunate. But it's frustrating because, well, not all of them, but talking about opportunities, the only way to do it is to just blow up that them up,” he added.

Duterte’s remarks did not also sit well with Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros, who said that lowering the prices of basic commodities must be prioritized instead of inciting violence.

“Well, what Duterte said about killing 15 senators to make way for his candidates — what really should be killed or bombed or brought down are the prices of goods, right?” she told reporters following a market visit with former senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan at Muñoz Market in Quezon City.

“There’s nothing else that should be the focus in this election. That’s how important it is to bring back Senator Kiko Pangilinan and Senator Bam Aquino to the Senate — just for that real issue, which is true unity for our people: lowering food prices, increasing support for agriculture, creating jobs, and policies like those of Senator Kiko Pangilinan," she said.

Asked for her initial reaction, the opposition lawmaker said: "My first reaction — what? What did he say? What else can the people’s reaction be, who are already struggling in life, with the issues being discussed by Sen. Kiko and Sen. Bam.”

“Other people’s answer to these problems is more violence? I really don’t know about them. I will listen to Senator Kiko here,” she stressed.