Despite squabbles, 2017 a productive year

year that just ended was a productive year for the Senate, mainly because the senators set aside their difference to pass crucial measures.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said members of the majority and minority blocs worked together to achieve critical reforms such as will enable millions of students to graduate from college without the burden of high tuition fee cost.

“Reforms such as these and not politics are what matters to the lives of our people,” he said

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said the opposition sponsored and authored seven of the 10 the Senate passed in 2017.

“The minority bloc has been working hard all this time. The records will bear this out. I am proud of our performance. We are the most productive group in the Senate,” he said.

The minority bloc is composed of Senators Franklin Drilon, Francis Pangilinan, Paolo Benigno Aquino and detained Leila de Lima of the Akbayan and Antonio Trillanes 4th of the Nacionalista Party.

The seven bills steered into passage by the minority include the for All (Aquino); Free Internet Access in Public Places Act (Aquino); Expanded Maternity Leave Law Food Technology Act (Trillanes); Speech Language Pathology Act (Trillanes); and the adjustment to the present peso value of the amounts in the 87-year old Revised Penal Code (Drilon).

“These bills, once enacted into laws, will have a direct positive impact on the lives of our people. We studied and prepared hard for these bills so that they will withstand Senate scrutiny,” Drilon said.

- the Japan-Philippines Agreement on Social Security, which would give the 400,000 Filipinos in Japan access to

Drilon said their legislative performance only proves that “the minority was never and will never become a stumbling block to a productive Senate.”

The senators all vowed that they would continue working hard to steer the passage of important measures when Congress resumes session in January 15, 2018.

The Senate is also gearing up to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) that will abolish the Autonomous Region in Mus- lim Mindanao (ARMM) and create a new one in its place. Investigations and squabbles The Senate also had its share of squabbles and controversies that could give afternoon “telenovelas” a run for their money.

Sen. Leila de Lima was arrested on February 24 on drug charges, weeks after she was ousted as chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice that investigated the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug personalities. She has since been detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center to face charges pending before the Muntinlupa Regional Trial Court - tions through her staff and petitioned the Supreme Court to nullify the lower court’s arrest order.

stripped of their respective committee chairmanships resulting in a major revamp in committee stewardship.

This led Drilon, Pangilinan, Aqui - don the majority bloc and form the “new minority bloc” with Trillanes.

Trillanes’ former fellow minority members that time, Senators Ralph Recto and Francis Escudero, transferred to the majority.

Senators Richard Gordon, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and Trillanes had a spat over the former’s handling of the investigation on the smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of shabu from China.

Gordon and Trillanes had stinging arguments on the latter’s move to invite presidential son, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and his brother-in-law Manases Carpio, to the probe to shed light on their alleged involvement in smuggling at the Bureau of Customs (BoC).

- er Duterte to the public hearing after to attend the probe but “ignore” Trillanes’ questioning.

Paolo Duterte and Carpio, husband of Davao City Mayor Sara - ate smuggling probe on September 12 wherein Trillanes asked him to show the “tattoo” on his back which Paolo refused. Trillanes claimed that the tattoo would indicate his alleged membership in an international drug syndicate.

against Trillanes for accusing him of impartiality toward Duterte wherein he called the Blue Ribbon panel as a “comite de absuelto.”

a counter ethics case against Gordon also for “unparliamentary” conduct.