SEN. Alan Peter Cayetano yesterday maintained he belongs to the minority bloc in the Senate despite his repeated declaration since the start of the 19th Congress that he is an “independent” senator.
Cayetano made the remark after Deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros refused to recognize the former’s election as minority leader of the bicameral Commission on Appointments.
Cayetano said that as a general rule, a senator who did not vote in the selection of the Senate President is automatically considered as from the minority.
“Ang sinabi ko hindi ako puwedeng bumoto para sa Senate President kahit kaibigan ko si Sen. Migz. Automatic minority ako. But nung sinabi ko I will not join the minority, I will not join Sen. Koko Pimentel and Sen. Risa Hontiveros sa minority (What I said before was I will not vote for the Senate president even if Sen. [Juan Miguel Zubiri] Migz is my friend. I then automatically belonged to the minority. But when I said I will not join the minority, what I meant was I will not join Senators [Aquilino] Koko Pimentel and Sen. Risa Hontiveros in the minority [bloc],” Cayetano said.
Hontiveros on Wednesday said she is not recognizing Cayetano as the CA minority leader since the CA minority leader should come from the minority bloc.
She also questioned Cayetano’s move to change his block affiliation in the Senate — shifting from independent to majority to minority.
But Cayetano insisted that “basta di ka majority, minority ka. Both houses may tinatawag na independent minority (If you are not from the majority, you are from the minority. Both houses [of Congress] have what we call independent minority).”
Cayetano said Hontiveros’ association with the “yellows” has a great influence on her.