THE Senate yesterday elected new chairpersons of its various committees following the ouster of Sen. Francis Escudero and the election of Sen. Vicente Sotto III as the new Senate president last Monday.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, who had previously served as the chamber’s number two official, also announced that the minority bloc would be composed of nine senators, and will be led by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano who will be the minority leader.
Estrada said that aside from himself and Cayetano, the other members of the minority bloc would include Escudero, Joel Villanueva, Christopher Go, Ronald dela Rosa, Imee Marcos, Rodante Marcoleta, and Robin Padilla.
Marcoleta and Villanueva will be the deputy minority leaders.
Following Estrada’s announcement on the composition of the minority bloc, Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri officially declared that Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who was named Senate president pro tempore last Monday, will chair the Blue Ribbon Committee.
Lacson will replace Marcoleta.
Sen. Raffy Tulfo was named the new chairman of the Committee on Labor; Sen. Loren Legarda, chairperson of the Committee on Accounts, Committee on Higher Education and the Committee on National Defense; Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito, Committee on Public Order; and Sen Risa Hontiveros, Committee on Health.
Go was named as vice chairman of the Committee on Health.
Zubiri said the heads of the rest of the committees will be named today.
Zubiri said Hontiveros and Ejercito have been elected as deputy majority leaders.
Lacson lauded the smooth transfer of power from Sotto to Escudero.
“In all my three terms as senator, I don’t remember having witnessed an outgoing SP administer the oath to his successor who removed him. A statesman par excellence. Chiz was genuinely gracious when we went to his office to inform him that Tito had the votes. Thank you,” Lacson said on X.
Hontveros, a former member of the minority bloc who is now with the majority, said the change in leadership was triggered by the “big waves” that have hit the country, including the Senate.
“The whole question of a more open, transparent, and accountable budget process, plus the controversy now being heard in the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, sparked by the privilege speech of now SP pro tempore Ping Lacson on the flood control projects. These are all the big waves or the big noises buffeting not only our whole country, but the Senate as an institution,” Hontiveros said in an interview with Bilyonaryo News Channel.
She said the change in leadership was timely to boost the Senate’s ability to “face these issues squarely.” – With Jocelyn Reyes
