Minority senators lose chairmanships
BY JP LOPEZ
THE members of the new minority block of the Senate were formally stripped of committee chairmanships yesterday in line with the assumption last week of Juan Ponce Enrile as Senate president vice Manuel Villar.
Villar, Alan Peter Cayetano, Joker Arroyo, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Pia Cayetano, Francis Pangilinan, and Antonio Trillanes IV have yet to get any of the 36 permanent committees, of which only eight will be given to the minority.
The chairmanship of the Blue Ribbon Committee was formally transferred in the plenary to Sen. Richard Gordon, replacing Alan Cayetano.
The panel handles high-profile cases such as the fertilizer fund and swine scams, and overpricing of NorthRail project, among others.
The ethics committee, formerly headed by Pia Cayetano, was given to Panfilo Lacson, a key player in the ouster of Villar.
The committee is set to investigate the alleged double insertion in the C-5 road project in the 2008 national budget, supposedly benefiting Villar’s housing business venture.
The committee members are Gordon, Manuel Roxas and Loren Legarda, all known to be probable Villar rivals in the 2010 elections like Lacson.
Lacson was also named chairman of the ways and means and accounts committees.
Pangilinan’s resignation as majority leader after Villar’s ouster automatically removed him as chair of the rules committee. The two posts are now being held by Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Gregorio Honasan, a former Enrile aide in the defense department, now has three committees — energy (from Miriam Defensor Santiago) and the two committees he was already holding — public order and illegal drugs, and agrarian reform.
Ma. Ana Consuelo Madrigal replaced Pia Cayetano as chair of the committee on environment and natural resources. She retained the committees on youth, women and family relations and on peace, unification and reconciliation.
Legarda also has three committees — agriculture, health and demography, and social justice, welfare and rural development.
Francis Escudero is now the chair of the banks, financial institutions and currencies panel previously held by Edgardo Angara. He stays as head of the committee on justice and human rights.
Angara now heads the Senate committee on finance that was previously headed by Enrile. He retained the committee on science and technology.
Santiago now chairs two committees — economic affairs and foreign relations.
Roxas is the new chair of the education committee. He retained the trade and commerce panel.
Rodolfo Biazon retained the committee on national defense and security and got in addition the committee on urban planning, housing and resettlement.
Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. also retained his two committees (public works and public information and mass media) and got a third — public services formerly headed by Enrile.
Senate President pro tempore Jinggoy Estrada remains as head of the committee on labor, employment and human resource development.
Benigno Aquino III retained the committee on local government.
Defensor-Santiago joined the new majority yesterday. She failed to sign last week’s resolution ousting Villar.
"I have decided to join the new majority, because it still partly consists of the administration bloc to which I belong," she said in a statement.
Santiago said she had been absent and silent because she was sick with diarrhea, which could be due "to intestinal flu or old amoebiasis."
"On the weekend prior to the coup, in addition to my cold, I succumbed to diarrhea. On my doctor’s advice, I took a course of antibiotics. But then I developed dizziness," she said.
Santiago belied reports she asked for any committee from the new leadership and that she feigned illness to avoid participation in the Senate coup.
"I was clueless about the Senate coup. In my entire Senate career, the plotters never consulted me beforehand. Either I don’t count, or I am considered unapproachable," she said.
Santiago filed for another indefinite sick leave because of her lingering "intestinal flu." – With Dennis Gadil
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