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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Senate purge: 4 Liberals lose plum posts

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SENATOR Franklin Drilon was removed Monday as Senate President Pro Tempore in a shakeup that also saw Liberal Party members losing their key positions.

As soon as the session opened at 3:30 p.m., Senator Manny Pacquiao took to the floor and declared Drilon’s position as well as the chairmanship of three major committees vacant.

Drilon was succeeded by Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto, who took his oath of office before Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III.

As Senate Pro Tempore, Drilon was the second highest Senate official and an ex-officio member of all standing committees in the Senate and in the powerful Commission on Appointments.

Senator Franklin Drilon

Stripped of their chairmanships were LP national president Francis Pangilinan and Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, a first cousin of former President Benigno Aquino III.

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Pangilinan was booted out as chairman of the agriculture and food committee, while Aquino was ousted as the chairman of the education committee.

Nacionalista Senator Cynthia A. Villar, vice chairman of the agriculture and food committee, assumed the position vacated by Pangilinan. Independent Senator Francis Escudero replaced Aquino. 

Escudero, along with Recto, and Senator Antonio Trillanes IV are members of the minority bloc in the Senate.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, who ran under the LP banner in the May 2016 elections, was sacked as chairman of the committee on health and demography. She was replaced by Senator Joseph Victor  Ejercito who had earlier manifested his intention to bolt the United Nationalist Alliance and joined President Rodrigo Duterte’s Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino. 

Pimentel was the lone member of PDP-Laban in the Senate until he was joined by Pacquiao, who abandoned UNA where he ran for senator.

The three  LP senators—Drilon, Pangilinan, and Aquino—and their ally, Hontiveros , later said they would now become part of the minority group. None of them objected to Pacquiao’s motions and even seconded them.

Drilon said detained Senator Leila de Lima, also of the LP, would join them in the minority.

Following a one-minute  break, Pacquiao nominated  Recto as the new Senate President Pro Tempore,  which was seconded by Escudero.

Of the 23 senators present, 17 voted in favor of Recto. No senator objected to the motions raised by Pacquiao, first to replace Drilon and second, to declare the chairmanship and memberships of the three committees vacant.

Before the session started, Pangilinan said they would not be surprised if they would be ousted from their posts following the detention of De Lima at the PNP Custodian Center in Camp Crame on drug charges.

Pangilinan said he was “relieved, actually” after being sacked.

“We can further strengthen our independent stance vis-a-vis the  administration,” he said. “It’s better this way. We can strengthen the minority.”

Aquino said he had heard there would be a shakeup, but said this was not questioned because it was a political move.

“This is not about the performance of my committees because important laws in my committee are working. This is really a political move—a partisan move. I think we became an example because we’ve been very adamant about policies like the death penalty. We opposed that—lowering  the age of criminal liability. Our support to Senator De Lima… in going to Edsa,” Aquino said.

Hontiveros said that from the start, she joined the majority under the premise that this will push for a strong and independent Senate. “Sadly, this is no longer the case,” she said.

Because  of this, Hontiveros said, she decided to concede the chairmanship of the committee on health and move to the minority. 

Reacting to the removal of the LP senators from their posts, Vice President Leni Robredo said the LP was determined to work with the Duterte administration and to put national interest before politics.

“But despite our sincere efforts, it is now clear that the Duterte administration is incapable of tolerating dissent, no matter how constructive,” Robredo said.

“What happened in the Senate today is characteristic of an administration obsessed with monopolizing power and intent on marginalizing those who have opposing views. This has happened before. In the past, this paved the way for a one-man rule,” she added.

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