MAJORITY of senators yesterday elected Sen. Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri as Senate President as the first regular session of the 19th Congress convened.
Zubiri was nominated by Senators Joel Villanueva, Loren Legarda, Jinggoy Estrada, Grace Poe, Ronald dela Rosa, and Jose Victor Ejercito.
Back in 2019 during the 18th Congress, it was also Villanueva who nominated Zubiri to be majority leader because of his competence as a leader. Prior to this, Zubiri was also elected majority leader during the 14th and 17th Congress.
Zubiri was named Senate president pro-tempore before the 18th Congress adjourned last June 4 to ensure the continuous discharge of functions in the Senate after both former Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senate president pro-tempore Ralph Recto both “graduated” as senators last June 30.
After winning his reelection bid in the senatorial race during the May 9 elections, Zubiri’s name was floated as among the contenders to the top Senate seat, along with veteran lawmaker Sen. Cynthia Villar.
But Villar yielded to Zubiri after she learned that President Marcos Jr. met with Zubiri and House Speaker Martin Romualdez to discuss his administration’s legislative agenda.
“The 18th Congress was not the first time he (Zubiri) held a leadership post. At 39 years of age, during the 14th Congress, he became the youngest majority leader since the first congress in 1946, and again, he was Senate majority leader in the 17th Congress,” Villanueva said.
“With his demonstrated ability as a consensus builder, Senator Zubiri set the tone and led this chamber towards accomplishing the agenda of the Filipino people, even amidst the pandemic, leaving behind a productive 18th Congress with 507 bills of national and local applications passed into law. Among the top of the list are the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act and the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act,” he added.
Zubiri was elected by 20 senators. Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano and his sister, Sen. Pia Cayetano, did not participate in the voting, while Senators Risa Hontiveros and Aquilino Pimentel III abstained.
By tradition, senators who do not participate in the voting for the Senate President post automatically become members of the minority bloc, but the Cayetano siblings said they will instead form an “independent” bloc to serve as a “bridge” between the majority and minority groups in the upper chamber.
“Let me congratulate our newly elected Senate President. May the records show that I also did not cast my vote in favor of my esteemed colleague. At this point, I would like to remain independent. I will also not participate or cast my vote on any minority leader,” Pia said.
“By forming a small independent bloc… we’re given the freedom to distance ourselves from partisanship. So, if the policies and programs of President [Marcos] are right, we are free to support. And if they are wrong, we can also freely criticize,” Alan said.
Legarda was elected as Senate president pro-tempore, while Villanueva will the majority leader and chairman of the Committee on Rules.
Sen. Robin Padilla abstained from voting Villanueva as majority leader, saying: “Pag-uusapan po namin muna ni majority floor leader (Villanueva) ang isyu ko sa kanya (I will first discuss my issues with the majority floor leader).”
Villanueva said he has no idea what Padilla was talking about. “He has never talked to me… ginawa niya (he did) what he did, so that is his right,” he said.
He recalled that during one of the senators’ informal meeting, Sen. Ramon Revilla asked him if he can shake hands with Padilla.
“Well, I shook hands with him kanina (earlier) and I have nothing against anyone in the Senate. I was just elected majority leader and I have to do my job, and part of my job is to talk to him and make sure that if we don’t agree with any issue that he is espousing and I am espousing… at the end of the day, we just have to respect each other,” Villanueva said.
Hontiveros nominated Pimentel to be the minority leader.
Lawyer Renato Bantug Jr. was elected as the new Senate secretary. Bantug has served the Senate in various positions, among them executive director for legislation, acting Senate legal counsel, and chief of staff at the Office of the Senate President during the term of former Sen. Franklin Drilon.
‘REMAIN INDEPENDENT’
Zubiri thanked his colleagues for putting their trust on him to be their Senate leader.
“I shall repay that honor with hard work as your trabahador ng Senado (worker in the Senate). It is with humility that I accept this position. I do so conscious of the burden it carries and committed to the work it entails,” Zubiri said in his acceptance speech.
“As presiding officer, I may wield my gavel, but not the power of the institution,” he added.
Although majority of the senators are known allies of the administration, Zubiri reminded them to remain independent.
“But for us to do our role, we must uphold the Senate’s proud tradition of being independent. And that is important because the Senate’s independence is the lynchpin of its two other hallmarks: industry and innovation,” he said.
He said when Marcos asks Congress “to support his initiatives,” they must view them in the proper context. “That is not a presidential wish list he crafted in his own, but a president articulating what the people want. So let us respond to what the people want, urgently,” he said.
He also asked his colleagues to craft measures “which the Senate has acted upon during times of crisis — by harnessing the best ideas that our brightest can offer, so the cures will not just bring temporary relief but also permanently release our people from what ails them.”
Zubiri assured his colleagues and the public that he will give the minority a chance to bring their ideas in the plenary, saying that “the strength of an idea is what makes it right and not the sheer number of its believers.”
