Senate minority quarrels over panels

The nine-member opposition in the Senate is quarreling over whether to accept or reject nine committees that the majority is offering to it.

Opposition members led by Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. have earlier arrived at a consensus to accept committee chairmanships, but last Wednesday, they changed their mind.

That left Pimentel, who has informed Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan of the minority’s consensus, in a bind. The minority leader is offering to give up his post since his group could not seem to make a final decision on whether to accept or reject committees.

Had opposition senators stuck to their consensus to accept committees, Pimentel, who authored the Local Government Code, would have taken the committee on local government.

Another minority member, Jamby Madrigal, wanted the committee on youth, women and family relations, while the committee on banks and financial institutions was being offered to either Juan Ponce Enrile or Sergio Osmeña III, the panel’s holdover chairman.

On Wednesday, Osmeña was willing to continue chairing the committee on banks but when a colleague reminded him that they would reject the committees, he changed his mind.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson was being offered the committee on peace, unification and reconciliation but he said he would not take it.

If the minority could not make a final decision on the committee chairmanships, the majority led by Senate President Franklin Drilon is apparently in a similar predicament.

The list of committees that pro-administration senators want their opposition colleagues to chair continues to change.

The committee on banks, considered to be a critical panel, was included in the list only last week. Before that, the Drilon group wanted to keep it.

The administration block took back the committee on urban planning, housing and resettlement and the committee on public information and mass media from the list it had forwarded to the minority.

Pro-administration Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, holdover chairman of the housing committee, wanted to continue heading it in addition to the defense committee. While it was with the minority, the housing committee had a prospective chairman in Jinggoy Estrada, senator-son of ousted President Joseph Estrada.

Senate sources told The STAR that the critical committees are being cleared with Malacañang before they are offered to the opposition.