The idea of leaving the majority bloc had crossed Sen. JV Ejercito’s mind as he expressed dismay over how the Senate seems to be losing its focus on the real culprits behind the anomalous flood control projects.
For now, Ejercito said he stays with the majority bloc.
‘As for me, everyone knows I just focus on work. But if you’re no longer happy, then what?’ he said in a Viber message, written in Filipino, on Thursday.
But in an earlier interview posted on social media, Ejercito admitted that he almost left the majority group because he feels that they are already burning down their own house.
‘To be honest, I seriously thought about leaving the majority. Because if this is the direction we’re headed, it’s like we’re burning down our own house. We’re neglecting our colleagues, and we’re forgetting who the real culprits are,’ he said in the interview.
Former and incumbent senators have been accused of receiving kickbacks from either ‘ghost’ or substandard flood control projects of the government.
The scandal has been the subject of separate investigations by the Senate blue ribbon committee, the House of Representatives infrastructure committee, and the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI).
Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson, chairman of the blue ribbon panel, recently disclosed that almost all senators in the 19th Congress inserted P100 billion worth of items in the 2025 General Appropriations Act.
‘We’re losing focus on the real perpetrators and those behind the chaos,’ Ejercito went on, still responding to queries on Viber.
‘It’s really sad and discouraging. Everything that’s happening is so frustrating – we can’t move forward anymore,’ he further lamented.
Worse, the senator feared that the issues hounding the Senate could ignite calls for its abolition through Charter change.
‘This might just be another People’s Initiative all over again – destroy the Senate so that through Charter change, it can be abolished entirely,’ he said.