EDITORIAL
Because the reorganization of the Senate came swiftly or just within 24 hours, there is not much preparation for Sen. Francis Escudero to take the helm of the chamber as Senate president. However, long years as a legislator and local official instilled in him the needed qualities of leadership. So now most everybody is saying that Escudero is the right choice to lead the Senate.
The new Senate president’s first order of business is to meet the press, so that very early yesterday morning, Escudero was the solo guest at the Kapihan sa Senado among newsmen covering the Senate. Here, the new leader of the chamber divulged his thoughts and plans on how he will run the chamber.
Before anything else, Francis Escudero wants a better working arrangement with the House of Representatives. After all, the Senate and the House compose the legislature, although their members are working in offices far away from each other.
It can be recalled that congressmen and senators engaged in trading barbs and hurling insults over their disagreement on Constitutional Amendments or Charter Change, with the House pushing a People’s Initiative that proposed the system of voting jointly on charter amendments, thereby undermining the Senate’s voting power and rendering it close to irrelevant.
Last January, the Senate unanimously expressed its opposition to the people's initiative (PI) signature drive to change the Charter, which has been hounded by allegations of bribery and of being orchestrated by the lower chamber. Senators were particularly concerned about how the PI sought to amend the Constitution to allow all members of Congress to jointly vote on proposed constitutional amendments in a constituent assembly. This meant the 24-member Senate would be outnumbered by the House.
"It's not befitting for lawmakers to exchange unparliamentary remarks. We can probably start there before we discuss other issues," Escudero said in Filipino during Thursday's Kapihan sa Senado forum.
After mending ties by holding a meeting with House Speaker Martin Romualdez soon, Escudero said the senators may be ready to talk about Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 which seeks to change the economic provisions of the Charter.
Escudero himself is not convinced that it is now time to revise the Constitution, but said that he will respect the committee system in the Senate, and committee chairmen have the right to conduct hearings on issues that they deem worthy of conducting hearings about.
The new Senate president, we believe, will be ably assisted by Senate President Pro Tempore Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada and Senate Majority Floor Leader Francis “Tol” Tolentino in running the day-to-day affairs of the body, especially its plenary sessions and in tackling the needed bills to be processed.
It is good that the new Senate leadership has already named the new chairmen of several committees, for they can begin working or start preparing to work. In the distribution of more than 30 committees of the Senate, it is noteworthy that Escudero and his predecessor, Juan Miguel Zubiri, are working in tandem for a flawless transition. Zubiri himself has expressed his desire to work with the next leadership at the committee level, opting to accept the chairmanship of the Committee on Economic Affairs.
This development serves as a signal for the Group of 7 senators who remained loyal to Zubiri in the just concluded Senate coup. They were Joel Villanueva, Nancy Binay, Jose Victor Ejercito, Sonny Angara, Loren Legarda, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Zubiri. They are now deliberating on whether to join the Senate minority bloc composed of Sen. Koko Pimentel and Sen. Risa Hontiveros, or the remain independent. Whichever camp they choose, these 7 + 2 group remains a formidable camp in the Upper Chamber and their cooperation is needed to pass priority bills requested by Malacanang.
The Daily Chronicle congratulates Senate President Francis Escudero on his new position of power and responsibility—the third official highest official in the government and second only to the Vice President in the line of succession—and hope that he succeeds in leading the Senate.
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