Mounting opposition vs Cayetano siblings, sources say

MANILA, Philippines - Some senators are against two siblings getting top   posts in the Senate when the 16th Congress convenes on July 22.

Sources said Sen. Franklin Drilon, who is being eyed as the next Senate President, is against Senators Alan Peter and Pia Cayetano cornering the posts of Senate president pro-tempore and majority leader.

“There is a mounting opposition,” one of the sources told The STAR.

At least six senior senators have expressed reluctance in seeing the siblings holding the prime Senate posts.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said he had received reports that many senators, including Drilon, are not in favor of having the Cayetanos cornering the two plum Senate posts. 

A pro-administration senator, who asked not to be named, frowned on the idea.

“It will not look good for the institution, especially now that there are talks against political dynasties... It smacks of bad taste,” said the senator.

Senators are also considering Senators Loren Legarda and Ralph Recto as replacement of Senate president pro-tempore Jinggoy Estrada.

Recto is reportedly being retained as Senate ways and means committee chairman, but he wants a bigger role as an officer of the Senate.

The jockeying of posts arose after Sen. Teofisto Guingona III reportedly sought the chairmanship of the plum Senate finance committee.

Drilon headed the finance committee in the 15th Congress. It will be vacated when he is elected Senate president.

Guingona, who is serving the second half of his term in the next 16th Congress, got the post of chairman of the Blue Ribbon committee, and on peace and unification and reconciliation, shortly after he was elected in 2010.

Legarda said she will not be turning her back on the challenge of being the next Senate president pro-tempore when the 16th Congress convenes next month.

“I am not aspiring for any position with officer status because I have been there… I can live without it but if it is there, and there is a need, I will consider it,” she said. “I am not applying for it, I don’t need it, I can live without it.”

Legarda said Drilon had discussed the matter with her a number of times, but that she has not accepted the offer yet.

“They have said and they hoped that I will accept it,” she said.

Legarda said she does not want to fight for the position.

“If I would be asked to accept it, if it is given to me, then I would consider it,” she said.

Legarda is eyeing the chairmanship of the Senate committee on environment, and probably the oversight committees on climate change, on clear air act, and on solid waste management.

Oversight committees

Sotto expects to see a reduction in the number of oversight committees in the Senate during the 16th Congress.

At present, the Senate has a total of 35 oversight committees. These are on top of the 39 regular committees, each given their own operating budgets.

The increase in the number of oversight committees was never an issue before.

It was brought to the public’s eye late last year when the critics of resigned Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile questioned the use of the funds of the Senate.

Enrile asked Drilon, as chairman of the committee on finance, and Sen. Panfilo Lacson, as chairman of the accounts committee, to go over the oversight committees for the purpose of rationalizing these in response to the issues that came out.

In a speech last June 5 when he announced his resignation as Senate President, Enrile said: “I placed Senators Drilon and Lacson in charge of the review because of all the numerous requests for budget augmentation that I was receiving. With the way the senators now view the chairmanships over these oversight committees as a form of entitlement, it was impossible for me to satisfy everyone.

“Perhaps, in due time, Sen. Drilon will finally find a solution that will adequately satisfy the members of this chamber. More importantly, I hope that such a solution will correct a rather unwieldy situation that has earned the criticism and disgust of the people.”

Sotto said he would raise this issue during the first caucus of senators in the 16th Congress on July 22.

“I have every right to do so because only I have no oversight (committee chairmanship),” he said.

He will push for the retention of the oversight committees created by virtue of law, Sotto said.

Some laws, like the one creating the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines, include a provision for an oversight committee, the budget of which is also specified.

However, Sotto said some oversight committees like the one on bases conversion were created only through a resolution of the Senate.

Using the oversight committee on bases conversion as an example, the chairman, Sen. Alan Cayetano, asked Enrile for it and his request was accommodated, he added.

He expects the number of oversight committees to be cut in half after the rationalization, Sotto said.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III actually filed a resolution calling for the review and rationalization of the oversight committees for the purpose of saving taxpayers’ money.

The budgets of the oversight committees ranged from P5 million to a high of P38 million a year, he added.

Pimentel proposed that the work of oversight committees be incorporated in the functions of the regular committees since the oversight function of Congress is inherent in lawmaking.

“Even an increase of a modest amount in the standard budget of a regular committee in order to accommodate the additional oversight function will still save taxpayers’ money,” he said. – Christina Mendez, Marvin Sy