The Senate minority bloc can also handle the powerful blue ribbon committee if the majority decides to offer it to them, Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said Wednesday.
In a press conference, Cayetano said he does not want to be presumptuous, but the minority bloc could take on the committee.
‘It’s possible for the minority. In fact, if they give it to the minority, I’ll compare it to a coalition government. You know, now and then, when a president is elected but the vote was close, you take some government members from the opposing party,’ he said in Filipino.
‘It’s possible. I’m just not sure how comfortable they will be. If they offer it to the minority, we will discuss it, and then they will have the majority. But until they offer it, I will only consider it a coalition,’ he added.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III earlier named five senators as possible replacements for Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson as blue ribbon panel chairman.
Six senators have been mentioned as potential candidates to succeed Lacson, according to Sotto. He identified them as Sens. JV Ejercito, Raffy Tulfo, Francis ‘Kiko’ Pangilinan, Pia Cayetano, Risa Hontiveros, and Erwin Tulfo.
The majority bloc is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss Lacson’s resignation.
Meanwhile, in a resignation letter dated Oct. 7 and addressed to Sotto, Lacson explained that several colleagues expressed disappointment with the ‘direction’ of the blue ribbon committee hearings regarding the anomalous flood control projects.
‘Some senators publicly and secretly pursue the narrative that I am zeroing in on several of my colleagues while purportedly protecting those members of the lower house perceived to be the principal actors in the budget anomalies related to the substandard and ghost flood control projects,’ said Lacson.
But according to him, nothing could be further from the truth.
‘This narrative is categorically false. These misrepresentations are being floated mostly by critics opposed to our efforts to get to the bottom of the flood control anomalies,’ he said. /mcm