Risa: Rody can’t stop Senate probes

CEBU CITY—Senator-elect Risa Hontiveros said yesterday she would push for a “strong and independent” Senate to maintain the checks and balances among the three branches of government.

She told reporters after her oathtaking at the provincial capitol here that President-elect Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte could not stop the legislature from conducting inquiries.

“That’s part of our mandate. That’s part of the oath that we swore to the people and it is very consistent with my politics as a leader of Akbayan,” she said.

The executive, the legislative and the judiciary are coequal branches of government.

On June 8, Duterte warned lawmakers during a meeting in Davao City not to make the mistake of conducting congressional inquiries into his anticrime campaign.

Senate inquiry into the anticrime campaign would be in aid of legislation in order to create a policy framework for the law’s implementation and to prevent any excesses or abuses by the authorities, Hontiveros said.

Remain with LP

Hontiveros, the chair of the Akbayan party, said her group’s coalition with the Liberal Party would remain. She said her group would be willing to discuss specific issues with the senators belonging to Duterte’s party, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), especially with regard to the need for a “strong and independent” Senate.

“We are very open to discussing these issues… [and] we can also agree when we have to disagree,” she said she told PDP-Laban Sen. Koko Pimentel.

She said Akbayan had no objection to Pimentel’s assumption of the Senate presidency.

Although many LP members had shifted allegiance to PDP-Laban, Hontiveros said she would remain with Akbayan.

Hontiveros took her oath of office before Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III on Sunday morning at the Capitol Social Hall. With her were her three children—Kiko, Ianna and Sinta. Some of her relatives and colleagues also witnessed the ceremony.

‘Thank you, Cebu’

Asked why she took her oath in Cebu, she said this was her and her party’s way of thanking the Cebuanos for their support.

“Even when I lost twice at the national level, I was always in the top 12 in Cebu,” she said.

Hontiveros placed 7th in the senatorial race in Cebu in the May 9 election, receiving 528,865 votes.

She said one of her priorities would be to provide at least P6,000 in monthly pay for barangay health workers.