Change comes to the Senate
YEAR-END REPORT
The divisive and equally grueling May 2016 elections — where two senators ran for President and five ran for Vice President — seemed to be a presentiment that the next set of senators that would serve in the incoming 17th Congress are going to be peculiar.
That is why when President Duterte won, his camp’s mantra “change is coming” struck the Senate in a manner that not even the public expected.
All-star cast The Senate, in 2016, saw the entry of world boxing icon, the “People’s Champ” Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao in the Upper Chamber, and the likes of activists and former party-list Representatives Risa Hontiveros, and Joel Villanueva, former justice and human rights chief Leila de Lima, businessman and education advocate former Valenzuela Representative Sherwin Gatchalian.
Making a dashing comeback at the Senate were former senators Richard Gordon, Panfilo “Ping” Lacson (who served as rehabilitation czar under President Benigno Aquino III’s administration), Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri, and Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan.
Like father, like son
It was also the first in the Philippine Senate history to have a father and son elected as Senate President. Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, an ally of President Duterte and partymate at the ruling Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) party, was elected the Senate leader. His rival in the chamber’s top seat, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, was a strong contender being Duterte’s running mate during the elections.
Pimentel’s father, former Senate President Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr., served as Senate chief from November 2000 to July 2001.
It was also during this year that the younger Pimentel, who once figured in a bitter electoral protest against Zubiri, ended his five-year political feud with his erstwhile rival. Zubiri, who ranked sixth in the May 2016 senatorial polls, nominated Pimentel as the Senate president.
With Pimentel’s election to the Senate leadership, a “super majority coalition” of 19 senators from different political parties was formed. Included in the coalition were members of the former administration party of President Benigno Aquino III.
One direction?
In a move quite never seen before, the Senate in the 17th Congress seems to be more proactive in supporting the passage of controversial legislation, such as to reinstitute the death penalty as capital punishment especially for heinous crimes and drug-related cases.
Most of the senators are now overwhelmingly supporting, and vocally pushing and backing the President’s call for the restoration of the death penalty and even consider the measure that would lower the age of criminal liability — all of which are considered part of the Duterte’s “change” agenda.
Pacquiao, a self-confessed bornagain Christian, was among the primary responders to this call, as he expressed his full intention to support the reimposition of the death penalty. Among those who filed the bill reinstituting the death penalty bill in the Philippines include Pacquiao and Lacson, Senators Gatchalian, Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, Pacquiao, and Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.
Those who opposed these back-toback proposals are mostly from the former ruling administration party or the Liberal Party and they are Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon, senators De Lima, Pangilinan, Hontiveros, and Paolo “Bam” Aquino IV.
The three-man Senate minority bloc led by Sen. Ralph Recto has also signified their opposition to the death penalty bill. Senators Francis “Chiz” Escudero and Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV are part of the minority group.
The Senate has also become amenable to proposals to Charter change. The committee on Constitutional Amendments, Revision of Codes headed by Drilon has launched the first hearing into the various Charter change proposals that seek to amend provisions of the 1987 Constitution just before the holiday break.
Suspect in the Senate Meanwhile, like the popular “telenovelas,” the public got caught up in the drama that unfolded after neophyte senator De Lima stepped in the center of President Duterte’s ire for raising alarm on the spate of extrajudicial killings.
De Lima’s possible involvement in the illegal drug trade became the center of the House of Representatives’ ongoing probe into the proliferation of drugs at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) during her stint as Justice secretary, after she admitted having had a relationship with her former aide, Ronnie Dayan.
That became the subject of deliberation at the Senate ethics and privilege committee, which is now tackling the various ethics complaints against De Lima. The complaints are either calling for disciplinary action and for her suspension or expulsion from the Senate.
De Lima, a staunch critic of Duterte, also remained undaunted as she fiercely rejected insinuations she received drug money from alleged high-profile drug lord Kerwin Espinosa allegedly to finance her senatorial campaign.
EJK investigation While De Lima is just one of the few senators who criticized the illegal drugs campaign waged by the Duterte administration, she managed to initiate a Senate probe into the spate of alleged extrajudicial killings.
As head of the Senate Justice and Human Rights Committee, De Lima presented Edgar Matobato, a self-confessed hitman who claimed he was a member of Duterte’s so-called “Davao death squad” that were allegedly responsible for the summary killings of suspected criminals in Davao City.
However, De Lima was ousted as chair of the committee after Sen. Pacquiao pointed out to their colleagues that her being linked to the illegal drug trade allegedly made her biased in the investigation.
Gordon replaced her and the Senate’s lengthy investigation into the EJKs were wrought with tension and at one point, even ended in a shouting match between Gordon and De Lima and other members of the Senate panel.
De Lima and Pangilinan each filed a dissenting report and assailed the findings of the Gordon report that cleared the President of liability from the summary killings. They pointed out that there is insufficient proof to pin him on the series of EJKs.
The Gordon report also belied the existence of the Davao death squad which was allegedly formed by Duterte himself when he was still a local chief executive.
The Senate launched a separate investigation into the murder of Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr. inside the Baybay City subprovincial jail and it was here that Espinosa said De Lima received 18 million from him as protection money and to augment her campaign funds.
Split over FM Several senators, including Pimentel, took a stand against the burial of the late President Ferdinand Marcos (FM) at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
But despite this opposition, the Senate resolution that expresses the sense of the Senate declaring Marcos unfit for burial at the national heroes’ cemetery failed to get the nod of majority of 20 senators. At the time the Senate voted on the resolution Hontiveros introduced, only eight senators voted in favor of the resolution, six others were against and another six abstained from the voting.
Miriam’s death
Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s death on Sept. 29, 2016, at the age of 71 came also as a shock.
Even though she was already battling Stage 4 lung cancer, Santiago defied all odds by running for the Presidency in the last elections. Visibly wobbly during the presidential debates, she stood pat on her decision and took former Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as her running mate.
Following the death of the Philippines’ “Iron Lady,” she was aptly called by her supporters as the “best President we never had.”
Ordered dismissed It was also this year that the Senate had two of its members — Senators Ejercito and Villanueva — ordered dismissed. The Senate defied the Ombudsman’s order for Ejercito to be suspended for 90-days yet he voluntarily took a leave of absence. The Senate likewise, refused to heed the Ombudsman’s order to dismiss Villanueva as a senator saying the Senate, and not the Ombudsman, has the power to impose disciplinary actions against an erring member.
Ejercito’s case stemmed from the graft case filed against him over the allegedly anomalous purchase of firearms when he was still San Juan City Mayor.
Villanueva, on the other hand, is facing graft cases for allegedly misusing his pork barrel funds when he was CIBAC party-list representative. Drilon noted that the Ombudsman investigated his alleged misuse of pork barrel funds when he is already the director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
The result
Even though the first six months of the Senate under the Duterte administration came off to a rough start, Pimentel said he was glad that they were able to open First Regular Session of the 17th Congress by crafting an 11-point legislative agenda “to guide us to Change.”
The Senate passed the Duterte administration’s first ever proposed national budget, 13.35-trillion national budget by passing the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2017 before Senate adjourned for the holiday break.
The Senate’s 13.35-trillion allocated around 11.4 trillion, or 40 percent of the whole budget, to social services programs “in order to fund the priority programs of the President.”
The Senate also successfully passed the bill that postponed the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections—the first law passed by the 17th Congress.
The Senate also adopted 33 resolutions. Among the most noteworthy was the Senate Resolution No. 33, which concurred in the ratification of the Articles of Agreement of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).
Pimentel said concurring in the AIIB would provide the government “access to more sources of funding so we can usher in a golden age of infrastructure for the Philippines.”
As the Senate resumes sessions next year, Pimentel vowed to set the legislative tone for next year by calling for a senators’ caucus early next month.