LP senators to stay with majority coalition

MANILA, Philippines – Senators from the Liberal Party (LP) will remain with the majority coalition in the Senate despite calls from their partymates in the House of Representatives – who are in the opposition – to join them.

Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, one of four LP members in the Senate, said they would remain with the majority even as they reiterated their support for Vice President Leni Robredo, who chairs the party.

Aquino said the situation in the Senate is different from that in the House, as senators don’t work along party lines but on issues.

He cited the case of Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, who voted with them in opposing the burial of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

“So, as long as we’re able to keep that independence, we’ll probably stay with the majority here. If you look at the majority and minority division in Senate, it’s not as strict as it’s followed in the House,” Aquino said.

“As long as we’re able to really push for reforms and at the same time tackle issues case per case, we’ll  stick it out with the majority,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sen. Francis Pangilinan, who is LP president, hit former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for alleging that it was Robredo who stole the vice presidency from him.

Robredo defeated Marcos in the vice presidential elections last May by a margin of a little over 200,000 votes.

Robredo, in resigning from the Cabinet on Monday, said there is a plot to steal the vice presidency from her.

“Coming from Bongbong Marcos, the accusation is especially grating. Who has the experience in stealing? Who has accumulated hidden wealth amounting to billions of dollars? Who has conducted a surreptitious burial? Who is used to scheming?” Pangilinan said.

“Bongbong Marcos’ accusation is a projection of his own Plan B to regain power at the expense of history, at the expense of those killed, tortured and made to disappear, and at the expense of every Filipino born to the Marcos debt,” he said.

Clandestine plans

Fellow LP members in the House who are in the opposition said they were taken aback by Duterte’s treatment of Robredo, with Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman expressing belief the President eased her out because he wanted to keep their “clandestine” plans from her.

“Biglaan talaga iyung decision na iyun (The decision was really a surprise). Just last week, we had a fellowship and there was no mention from her (Robredo) about being marginalized in the Cabinet,” Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat told reporters in a news conference at the House of Representatives.

His colleague, Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, made similar pronouncements. “As far as we are concerned, there was no governance issue. The issue is only about political partisanship.”

But their titular head, Lagman, sees something more sinister.

“There are clandestine or secret plans which should not be known to her,” Lagman said. – Delon Porcalla