Sen. Robin Padilla added his voice of support for Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson’s impending return as chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee, the panel tasked with investigating irregularities in flood-control projects.
Padilla conceded that the nine-man minority bloc lacks the authority to reinstate Sen. Rodante Marcoleta to his previous chairmanship of the committee.
‘While I know that our fellow countrymen in the Minority bloc favor Senator Rodante Marcoleta, we cannot insist on our preference because the minority does not have the authority to appoint the chairperson of the committee,’ he said in a Facebook post.
‘We in the minority bloc do not have the ability to reinstate Senator Rodante Marcoleta as chair of the blue ribbon committee because we lack the numbers. There are only nine of us in the minority,’ he stressed.
The nine are Senate Minority Leader Alan Cayetano, Padilla, Marcoleta, and Sens. Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero, Joel Villanueva, Jinggoy Estrada, Imee Marcos, Ronald ‘Bato’ dela Rosa, and Christopher ‘Bong’ Go.
Escudero, Villanueva, and Estrada were subjects of the investigation for allegedly receiving commissions from ghost or substandard ghost projects. They repeatedly denied the allegations.
In the meantime, Padilla called for calm, saying it would not help the Senate if the members persisted in the dispute over the chairmanship of the blue ribbon panel.
‘The Blue Ribbon Committee has practically turned into a Red Ribbon, as no one wanted to lead it anymore,’ he quipped. ‘It’s good that Senator Panfilo Lacson has now returned to take the helm.’
He also urged the public to trust Lacson’s renewed leadership in the committee.
‘Let us also be thankful that he, from the Majority bloc, is once again the chair of the Blue Ribbon Committee-rather than other senators whose political colors are openly displayed, which could lead to even fiercer exchanges of mudslinging that would only drag the Senate deeper into the quicksand,’ Padilla said.
Lacson quit his post early this month, citing his colleagues’ disappointment with the direction of the committee.
But just more than a week after resigning from his post, Senate President Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III claimed in various media interviews that most of their peers in the majority bloc still would want Lacson to come back as head of the blue ribbon panel.
Lacson is expected to be reelected when the Senate resumes its session on Monday, Nov. 10.