LP senators stripped of top panel posts
Liberal Party ( LP) senators were stripped of their committee chairmanships and relegated to the minority bloc yesterday in a dizzying turn of events that lawmakers belonging to the once powerful party warned could weaken the independence of the Senate.
Within 15 minutes of Sen. Manny Pacquiao’s making his motions on the floor, Senators Franklin Drilon, Francis Pangilinan, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV and Risa Hontiveros lost their chairmanships and other Senate posts.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo immediately rejected
insinuations that President Duterte had a hand in the Senate shake-up.
Pangilinan, LP president, was replaced by Sen. Cynthia Villar as chair of the agriculture committee, while Drilon was replaced as Senate President Pro Tempore by Sen. Ralph Recto.
Aquino lost his chairmanship of the education committee to Sen. Francis Escudero and Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito took over the health committee from Hontiveros.
Hontiveros is not an LP member but has been siding with the party in almost all issues.
Recto relinquished his post as minority leader and was immediately sworn into his new post. Escudero also joined the majority bloc.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who was left in the minority bloc, was joined by the LP senators and Hontiveros.
Sen. Leila de Lima is expected to make a formal communication from her detention at Camp Crame today to signify her joining the minority with her colleagues in the LP.
Pangilinan said they have accepted the loss of their committees but found the development in the Senate “very disturbing” and pointed to Malacañang as the cause of it all.
“This (ouster) is all part of the plan because the administration is not comfortable with our criticisms on some issues and wrong policies,” he said.
He said the LP has been hitting the administration on major issues like extrajudicial killings, the burial of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani and the re-imposition of the death penalty.
He said the “last straw” was their vote in a caucus pushing for the investigation sought by Trillanes on revelations made by self-confessed hit man, retired police officer Arturo Lascañas.
The retired police officer earlier linked Duterte to the so-called Davao death squad.
He said he felt sorry for Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and their other colleagues for allowing Malacañang to interfere in the affairs of the chamber.
“Obviously he (Pimentel) has to toe the line. Our concern is, has the independence of the Senate been compromised? This administration is not used to criticisms and some of our colleagues don’t want to confront or criticize or they may be put in a difficult spot,” he said.
Aquino – on the floor – put on the record that his ouster had nothing to do with his performance as chair of the education panel, which he said has been churning out vital legislation.
“This is really a political move – a partisan move. If that is the price to pay for my independence, then so be it,” Aquino later told reporters.
Hontiveros expressed belief the minority bloc would be strengthened with additional members.
“We’ll continue to fiscalize even as we support good programs (of the administration),” she said.
In a statement issued last night, Pimentel said work in the Senate has been hampered by “the blurring of the lines between the majority and the minority to the detriment of public interest.”
“There have been instances where the majority, instead of closing ranks, ended up divided,” he said.
He said a majority of the senators decided that to best achieve the Senate’s legislative agenda, “clear lines have to be drawn.”
Prior to the developments on the floor, the majority senators, excluding their LP colleagues, held a caucus to discuss how to go about the changes in the Senate seats.
Hontiveros and the LP senators said they learned of the caucus when they arrived at the Senate premises in the afternoon but they had an inkling last week of what was about to transpire.
Pangilinan said they held a meeting on Saturday to prepare for their possible removal from the majority bloc.
Recto said he discovered the changes only after his arrival at the Senate and was prevailed upon by 17 majority senators to take over Drilon’s post.
When Pacquiao made separate motions declaring the committee chairmanships vacant, the LP senators did not object but instead seconded his motions.
One-man rule
Vice President Leni Robredo said the ouster of LP senators from key posts could be an attempt by the administration to “silence” opposing views and pave the way for one-man rule.
“When we were given the mandate by the people, we were determined to work with this administration to put national interest before politics,” Robredo, the highest elected official of LP, said in a statement.
“But despite our sincere efforts, it is now clear that the Duterte administration is incapable of tolerating dissent, no matter how constructive,” she said.
Robredo said what happened at the Senate “is characteristic of an administration obsessed with monopolizing power and intent on marginalizing those who have opposing views.”
The Vice President expressed concern the administration is setting the stage for the return of dictatorship.
“This has happened before. In the past, this paved the way for a one-man rule,” she said.
Robredo maintained they would not be intimidated and would continue to voice their opposition to administration initiatives and policies inimical to public interest.