‘Senateflix’ over, back to normal program – Win

MANILA, Philippines —  Now that he is officially the Senate President, Sherwin Gatchalian says the weeks-long “Senateflix” political drama is over – to be followed by “normal programming” of legislative work.

“Tapos na ang Senateflix. Back to work na tayo,” Gatchalian said yesterday at a press briefing, his first as full-fledged Senate President.

Asked about his leadership style, Gatchalian said he will just let his work ethic – like doing in-depth research before inquiries and fine-tuning provisions and technical details of bills – do the talking.

Gatchalian said he has yet to hear from the former Senate president Alan Peter Cayetano since the Wednesday special session.

But he said he was glad some Cayetano bloc senators – Loren Legarda, Bong Go and Camille Villar – attended the Wednesday special session to join the new majority in tackling the bills stalled by Cayetano’s June 1-3 session boycotts.

Even the minority senators were given juicy posts during the session, as Gatchalian’s way of extending the proverbial olive branch.

Camille and her brother Mark Villar were given the chairmanship of the committees on government corporations and public enterprises, and on banks, financial institutions, and currencies. Go was given back his previous post as chairman of the committees on youth and on sports.

Gatchalian said he remains open to talking with the minority senators and set aside their political differences.

“The door is open to dialogue. But I really appreciate the minority members who were in the session yesterday (Wednesday),” Gatchalian said.

“It gave me a chance to talk to them, to also set the direction for starting our work,” he added.

Gatchalian said he doesn’t want to take personally the absence of other minority senators Robin Padilla and Rodante Marcoleta.

Sen. Mark VIllar was absent due to a trip abroad. Also absent were Jinggoy Estrada, who is detained for plunder over the flood control mess; and Ronald dela Rosa, who is in hiding. Cayetano served as Senate president from May 11 to June 3.

His term was wracked with chaotic scenes including the firing of weapons at the Senate premises started by then sergeant-at-arms Mao Aplasca.

Dealing with important legislative work may be less exciting but Senate employees are better off with it, Gatchalian said.

“The sentiment that I’m getting from colleagues is that they really want to work. What happened was stressful. So they want to go back to the regular programming, which is legislation, debates, resolutions,” Gatchalian said.

“We may not agree on many things, on certain bills and resolutions. But at least we can debate over them. That’s legislation,” he said.

Asked what he thinks the next season of this “Senateflix” should be, Gatchalian said it should portray the senators doing their work and mandate instead.

It should be called the “Back to work season,” Gatchalian said.

P700 M wasted?

In yet another Facebook Live yesterday, his 21st since his May 11 Senate coup, Cayetano defended himself from Sen. Panfilo Lacson calling him a “disgraced ex-Senate president” whose 28-day leadership resulted in a wastage of P700 million in taxpayers’ money. He said Lacson merely multiplied Gatchalian’s es timate of P25 million Senate daily operational expenses with the number of days Cayetano was Senate presi dent, allegedly just to paint him in a bad light. Cayetano also defended his move to go on Facebook Live to address his “Face book family” at the height of the Senate crisis.