SENATE President Francis “Chiz” Escudero yesterday said that his position against amending the 1987 Constitution has not changed despite his election as leader of the upper chamber.
But, Escudero told reporters that the Senate will have to “balance our relationship” with the House of Representatives, which is pushing for the revision of the Charter’s so-called restrictive economic provisions, so the two chambers will not end up as “enemies.”
Escudero said while his stance against Charter change is shared by most senators, “but at the same time we have to balance our relationship with the House.”
“Meaning aayusin naman natin. We can agree to disagree but not at each other’s necks, nose na mag-a-away… hindi naman kailangan mag-agree sa lahat ng bagay para hindi maghiwalay. Puwede naman magkasundo sa maraming bagay. Puwedeng hindi magkasundo nang hindi nag-aaway (This means that we will fix it. We can agree to disagree but not at each other’s necks, nose that we will resort to fighting… we do not need to agree on all things to remain united. [But] We can agree on several matters. We can also disagree without fighting),” he said in a chance interview at the Senate.
Former Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri has earlier said that at least eight senators, including Escudero, are against Cha-cha, which prompted Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III to say that proposed Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 (RBH 6), or the economic Cha-cha bill, has no chance of being approved in the Senate.
RBH 7, the House’s counterpart version of RBH 6, has already been approved by the lower chamber and transmitted to the Senate for the latter’s approval.
In a press conference after his resignation as Senate president, Zubiri has said that “Cha-cha is dead in the Senate” since Escudero is not keen on the proposal.
Escudero said that since Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara has resigned as chairperson of the subcommittee of the Committee on Constitutional Reforms which is discussing RBH 6, all scheduled hearings of the panel will now be deferred. The subcommittee was scheduled to hold the last two hearings on RBH 6 in Cebu and Cagayan de Oro cities this week.
Escudero said Cha-cha was not discussed during the dinner Tuesday night hosted by President Marcos Jr. and First Lady Liza Araneta for senators and their spouses.
“Hindi namin napag-usapan, wala kaming napag usapan (We did not talk about it, we did not talk about it),” he said.
‘NO HAND’
Escudero said Tuesday night’s dinner in Malacañang was scheduled three weeks ago, as he dismissed speculations that the ouster of Zubiri was initiated supposedly on the prodding of the First Lady, who was reportedly irked with the Senate’s investigation on the President’s alleged use of illegal drugs in 2012 when he was still a senator.
“Quite frankly, it (change of leadership) was not discussed. I was not asked. All he (referring to Marcos) said… he was in Dumaguete and Bacolod and by the time he landed, he was informed [about the leadership change], by the time he landed, he found out that there was already a change and it was finished. That’s what he told me… He never knew about it…, ” Escudero said
The Senate leader said he was absent during the last two dinners hosted by the President, and was compelled to attend Tuesday night since he is now the Senate president.
Escudero said the spouses of the senators were also invited to attend the dinner with the First Couple.
Mrs. Marcos, in an Instagram post, said she and the President “had a nice time breaking bread with the senators and their spouses.”
In a separate Facebook post, she described the gathering as a “casual dinner.”
A photo taken during the event showed that among the senators who were present Escudero and his wife Heart Evangelista, Senate president pro tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Senate majority leader Francis Tolentino, and Senators Grace Poe, Cynthia Villar, Loren Legarda, Pia Cayetano, Alan Peter Cayetano, Robinhood Padilla, Raffy Tulfo, Mark Villar, and Sherwin Gatchalian.
Aside from Evangelista, the other spouses who joined the dinner were ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Jocelyn Tulfo; former Senate President Manny Villar; Emmeline Yan Aglipay (wife of Mark Villar), Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla, and Kathryna Yu-Pimentel, wife of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III.
Senators Pimentel and Bong Revilla did not attend the gathering.
Absent during the dinner were Senators Zubiri, Angara, Nancy Binay, Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, Joel Villanueva, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, Lito Lapid, Risa Hontiveros, and Imee Marcos.
Former Senate President Franklin Drilon, in an interview with ANC, said it cannot be denied that Malacañang has something to do with the change of leadership in the Senate.
“But having said that, to me, there’s nothing wrong with it because the President is the political leader of our country. And therefore, as President, he has the prerogative and the obligation to make sure that his policies find its way in the law books,” Drilon said.
“Ang you can only push this policy if the leaders of both houses themselves align to the same policy. So, there is nothing, I must emphasize, that the political leader of this country will try to influence the leadership in both chambers,” he added.
To his opinion, Drilon said Zubiri was ousted due to the “cumulative effect” of a number of political events which started when the People’s Initiative backed by the House of Representatives became a hot issue.
He said another issue was when Zubiri approved the issuance if an arrest order against Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Pastor Quiboloy, who is a known ally of then President Duterte.
The final event was when the Senate Committee on Public Order held its hearings on the “PDEA leaks.”
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
During yesterday’s session, Zubiri was named as the new chair of the Committee on Economic Affairs, replacing Sen. Mark Villar who was elected as the new chair of the Committee on Government Corporations and Public Enterprises vice Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.
Cayetano was elected chair of the Committee on Trade and Industry and the Committee on Higher, Technical, and Vocational Education, which was previously chaired by Escudero.
Senators also elected Sen Pia Cayetano as chairperson of the Committee on Energy, Sen. Raffy Tulfo of the Committee on Public Services, Sen. Grace Poe of the Committee on Finance, Majority leader Francis Tolentino of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights and of the Committee on Ethics, Sen. Nacy Binay of the Committee on Sustainable Development Goals, Sen. Manuel Lapid of the Committee on Tourism, Sen. Joel Villanueva of the Committee on Labor, and Sen. Imee Marcos of the Committee on Urban Planning, Housing, and Resettlement.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian was retained as chair of the Committee on Basic Education and Committee on Ways and Means, while Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito was re-elected as chair of the Committee on Local Government. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
