Despite getting the chairmanship of plum Senate committees in the upcoming 18th Congress, Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Sunday said no special favors were given to Senators-elect Bong Go, Ronald dela Rosa and Francis Tolentino, who are known to be “very close” to President Rodrigo Duterte.
Speaking in an interview over radio dzBB, Sotto said that the three senators were just very lucky because the committees they will lead will soon be vacated by outgoing senators.
The outgoing senators were about to finish their term or failed in their reelection bid.
Go, who served as presidential aide of the Presodent, would get the chairmanship of the committees on health and urban planning, housing and resettlements to be vacated by Senator JV Ejercito, who failed to make it in the mid-term elections last May.
Senator Manny Pacquiao offered Go his chairmanship of the committee on sports.
Sotto said Dela Rosa, former police chief and direcror of the Bureau of Correcrions, will now chair the Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs.
Tolentino, a former political adviser of Duterte, will head the Committee on Local Government of re-elected Sen. Sonny Angara.
Angara, who also heads the ways and means committee, might get the finance committee of elected Antique Gov. Loren Legarda.
According to Sotto, the justice committee, headed by Senator Richard Gordon, was not given to him.
“‘Di nga napagbigyan si Senator Tol [Tolentino] kasi ang second committee na gusto niya, ‘yung Committee on Justice. Noong binanggit ni [Senator] Manny [Pacquiao] kay Dick ‘yun, lumukot ang noo ni Dick,” he said.
Sotto aid most of the committees that the three senators want to chair are committees that no other senator wants to head.
The Senate leader is confident he will retain the Senate presidency following the show of support of the majority of his colleagues in the Upper Chamber.
However, Sotto said he is prepared to go down from his position if anybody among the senators can present him the number—13 signatures of senators.
“We assumed that I have solidified my post as Senate President because nobody said otherwise about my leadership. And when we talked about leadership, this include the pro tempore and majority leader,” explained Sotto.
Sotto said he will have no problem if somebody can get the needed 13 votes to assume the post of Senate president.
“Di tayo, ‘di ako, ika nga, ay kapit tuko. Pakita mo sa akin ‘yung seven signatures mo at ako ay madaling mag-resign. Ibibigay kaagad natin ‘yon. You always serve at the pleasure of the majority,” he said.
Senator Panfilo Lacson and Pacquiao drafted a manifesto and asked senators to sign it in support of Sotto’s leadership.
At least 13 senators have signed the manifesto but three of them are bowing out when the 17th Congress adjourns.
