Drilon is new Minority Leader

It is inaccurate and factually erroneous to say that the reorganization was due to hampered work. SENATOR FRANCIS “KIKO” PANGILINAN ON THE SENATE SHAKEUP

Senator Franklin Drilon, who was ousted as Senate President Pro Tempore, is the new Minority Leader while Senator Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV is Assistant Minority Leader.

Senator Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, who had moved to declare the President Pro Tempore post as vacant, confirmed that he and 15 other senators decided last Sunday that the LP senators should be removed from the majority because their positions on various issues differed from theirs.

Pacquiao said they held a meet- ing at his house, where they agreed that the LP senators should be clearly identified as the opposition.

“Ayoko ng pulitika. Kasama mo nga pero hindi mo naman kakampi at sila pa ang bumabaril sayo (I don’t like politics. You’re in the same bloc, but you don’t have their support),” Pacquiao said.

Pacquiao also clarified that they have no plans to oust Senator Aquilino Pimentel III as Senate President.

Aside from Drilon and Aquino, other members of the new minority bloc are Senators Antonio Trillanes IV, Francis Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros, and Leila de Lima, who sent a letter withdrawing her committee chairmanship.

Hontiveros, Aquino, Pangilinan, and Drilon were stripped on Monday of their committee chairmanship.

Pangilinan, also LP president, said their ouster from the key committees had nothing to do with their performance.

“The only instances we were divided in the majority were on the issues of the Marcos burial in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, the extrajudicial killings, the investigation of corruption in the Bureau of Immigration, and the Lascañas testimony,” he said.

“It is, therefore, inaccurate and factually erroneous to say that the reorganization was due to hampered work,” Pangilnan added.