Back to speaking frankly

Leading the opposition bloc in Congress is nothing new for Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon. As vice chairman of the Liberal Party (LP), Drilon slid down to become the Senate minority leader after they broke up with the so-called “super majority” in the 17th Congress in late February this year.

The LP Senators led by Drilon parted ways from the short-lived “super majority” organized last year by PDP-Laban president Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III that secured the latter’s election as new Senate president. Drilon was the sitting Senate chief then.

The Senate president, under our country’s 1987 Constitution, is the third highest government official – next to the Vice President – in the line of succession in case the President of the Republic gets incapacitated, or impeached, or dies in office.

Both President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Leni Robredo are facing impeachment complaints filed at the House of Representatives. The impeachment complaints were filed during the Lenten recess. Sessions of both chambers resume next week, starting May 2.

Speaking as LP leader, Drilon confirmed the clarification issued earlier by LP president, Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, that there is no party stand whether or not to support the impeachment complaint against the President. A formal complaint to impeach President Duterte was filed by Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano. 

The LP leaders at the Senate issued this clarification after several LP Congressmen headed by Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo announced last Saturday that their House minority bloc won’t endorse the impeachment case against President Duterte.

The implied quid pro quo, though not in spoken nor in written words: The ruling PDP-Laban would, in turn, not entertain the impeachment complaint filed against VP Robredo by known Marcos loyalist lawyer Oliver Lozano.

 At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay last Wednesday, Drilon was at his usual best in articulating his views on national issues and concerns as Senate minority leader representing the opposition ranks.

If I am not mistaken, Drilon has served as Senate president for three terms intermittently during the past Congresses. Drilon first became full-fledged Senate president during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from 2001 to 2006. And again from 2013 to 2016 when he made a successful comeback bid at the Senate during P-Noy’s term.

But during his short stint as Executive Secretary of the late President Cory Aquino from 1991 to 1992, Drilon’s closest experience for the presidency was having served as the so-called “little” president. When former President Fidel Ramos took over, he retained Drilon in his Cabinet as Justice Secretary. Thus, he has served up close and personal two past presidents of the country.

For almost ten months now of the administration of President Duterte, Drilon could not help but frown on the reported wrangling of Cabinet members. Giving unsolicited advice to President Duterte’s executive secretary Salvador Medialdea, Drilon urged the incumbent “little” president to crack the whip on fellow Cabinet members who squabble in public as reported in media.  

“Been there, done that,’ is Drilon’s fond repartee in a situation similar to where he finds himself at present.

Now that party lines are clearer, or shall we say party loyalties, Sen. Drilon admitted the LP bloc at the Senate will play to the hilt its designated role of “fiscalizers” of the administration party PDP-Laban that now controls both chambers of the 17th Congress.

With just four weeks left of the first regular sessions of the legislature, Drilon paints a bleak picture for the approval into law of proposed bill to restore death penalty being pushed by President Duterte. He made the statement at the same time the Social Weather Station released its latest survey results showing more than 60% of Filipinos favor restoring death penalty in our country.

Drilon believes there are at least 13 Senators to block the approval of the proposed death penalty bill. Per his own count, at least seven Senators from the majority bloc will vote along with them as the six-member minority group.

Aside from Drilon and Pangilinan, the six-member minority is composed of LP Senators Benigno “Bam” Aquino and Leila de Lima; Sen. Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV (NP); and Akbayan Sen. Rissa Hontiveros. Drilon included as being anti-death penalty bill their fellow LP member, Senate president pro tempore Ralph Recto, who opted to stay with the majority bloc.

While he refused to name the seven other Senators likely to vote against the death penalty bill, Drilon identified five Senators who he described as having publicly declared support for the death penalty bill’s passage into law. They include Senate majority leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III and Senators Manny Pacquiao, Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Cynthia Villar, all of whom are known supporters of President Duterte.

Obviously reacting to Drilon, Sotto in his Twitter account sarcastically posted: “There is a new speaker at the Senate.”

Like the impeachment case, Drilon stressed it is not also an LP stand to block the death penalty bill. A veteran of Senate politics, Drilon reiterated the fate of any bills to get approved depends on the individual stand of at least 13 Senators that would decide the majority vote. This is the same magic number – out of the so-called 24 “independent republics” – to elect a Senate president.

This is why, Drilon disclosed, LP has plans to ask either the Senate president or directly petition the courts to grant furlough for detained Sen. De Lima so she can cast her vote once the death penalty bill is up for approval on second reading. The bill is pending at the Senate committee on constitutional amendments which Drilon used to chair.

There are seven death penalty proposals being consolidated by the Senate justice committee now chaired by Senator Richard Gordon who himself is opposed to the restoration of capital punishment in the Philippines.

On extra judicial killings (EJKs) issue, Sen. Drilon declined to comment for now on the recently filed case of crimes against humanity against President Duterte before the International Court of Justice in Geneva. He just returned from his recent trip to Vatican where he and wife Mila had their renewal of marriage vows.

Even as he is back again speaking frankly as opposition leader, Drilon rues at the Senate public hearings have been degraded into televised “police inquiries” on EJKs.