Senate revamp set; battle looms over bills OK’d by opposition

In what appeared to be the proverbial lull before the storm, the Senate opened its second regular session uneventfully yesterday even as senators prepared to cross swords on the controversial session the opposition held before adjourning last month.

Administration Sen. Joker Arroyo confirmed that a major revamp is expected to take place in the Senate today with some members of the minority losing the committees they gained during the last reorganization on June 3.

The possibility of a revamp emerged after Sen. Robert Jaworski defected to the administration bloc on Sunday night and effectively restored to the ruling coalition most of the Senate’s 37 standing committee chairmanships.

Justifying his defection, Jaworski said he "agonized" over his decision but insisted that he also provided the solution to an impasse that was eroding the integrity of the Senate.

"I have been agonizing since I arrived last Saturday," Jaworski said. "I would not have made this decision if there was a clear majority or minority but there was none."

"I’ve been waiting for them for any solution to break the 12-12 deadlock but none came. I believe that something has to be done so that the Senate will start moving," he added.

Jaworski denied allegations that he accepted the administration invitation so he could be assured of a berth in the administration’s senatorial ticket in 2004.

"I am already a senator. I am not aspiring to be a senator. And I also know that there have been many elections where administration candidates lost," he said.

In an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel, Jaworski also refused to discuss that his move had anything to do with outstanding loans he has with the Philippine National Bank.

"Jaworski did not enter the Senate to go into business," he told ANC, hinting that he had contracted loans, involving his cargo ship, before he was senator but those loans were covered by collateral.

Sotto to stay with opposition

Sen. Vicente Sotto III was also tagged last Wednesday as among the oppositionists who may defect to the administration but he stressed yesterday that he would stay with the opposition although he agreed to serve as a "consultant" to the nascent Presidential Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

Sotto clarified that the PDEA is the culmination of a nine-year campaign in which he was closely involved and that the drive against narcotics was above and beyond politics.

According to Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., the opposition is resigned to fact that, with Jaworski’s defection, the administration is now the new majority and even expressed willingness to vacate his post as Senate minority leader.

Pimentel said he would discuss the matter with the opposition bloc and find out if Sotto would be willing to take his place once the administration bloc calls another reorganization of the Senate committees.

"For instance, we cannot let Sen. John Henry Osmeña hang on to the chairmanship of the finance committee," Senator Arroyo told reporters at the Batasang Pambansa while he was waiting for President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address.

The senator also confirmed the administration bloc in the Senate would likely invalidate the acts promulgated by opposition senators during the controversial sessions from June 3 to 6.

It never happened?

"We will just ignore it as if it did not happen at all," Senator Arroyo said. "As far as the congressional record is concerned, the minority’s one month of glory did not take place."

But Sen. Edgardo Angara said the opposition would insist on the validity of the June 3 to 6 session.

"We will fight them... They can expect a good fight from us," Angara said, explaining that the opposition maintains that the opposition already passed several vital bills, like the absentee voting law, during the controversial session.

"They cannot invalidate the June 3-6 proceedings. That would be altering history. That would be falsification of official documents," he added.

Angara proposed that the administration bloc merely affirm the validity of the questioned session and then make their own reorganization.

However, Senate President Franklin Drilon said that while he was in favor of some of the bills passed by the opposition, the administration bloc maintains that these bills will have to be processed and passed again.

The administration bloc contends that Pimentel was not authorized to convene a Senate session on June 3 and that 13 votes are needed to reorganize the Senate, so the opposition was one vote shy when they voted to approve several acts, elected two new Senate leaders and 25 new committee chairman.

"They should concentrate on substantive matters, like their alternative programs, instead of on procedural matters, like the session proceedings," said administration Sen. Ralph Recto.

Other administration senators were more conciliatory and appealed for senators to work together for the passage of measures that would redound to national development.

Although Drilon stressed that the administration bloc stands pat on its position on the June 3-6 session, he also appealed for unity among senators because the impasse impacted negatively on the image and reputation of the Senate.

"Now that the Senate impasse has been resolved, the people can expect that there will be no more politicking and both the administration and the opposition will cooperate in dealing with the country’s problems," said Sen. Robert Barbers.

Sen. Loren Legarda said she is personally in favor of giving opposition senators some of the committee chairmanships.

"We still need the assistance of the minority members," said Legarda.

Sen. Renato Cayetano, chairman of the Senate committee on energy, expressed relief that the Senate could now put behind the "embarrassing" impasse over the past seven weeks and assured the opposition that he would be open to their proposals on how to reduce the cost of power.

"There will be no whitewash on the committee investigations on the PPA," Cayetano said, referring to one of the reasons why Senator Osmeña bolted the administration bloc and sparked the impasse on June 3.

Osmeña defected to the opposition on June 1 when administration Sen. Ramon Revilla was recuperating in the United States from spinal surgery. Osmeña’s move brought about the 12-12 split but, with Revilla out of the country, the vote was trimmed to 12-11.

Do unto others

Confronted with the possibility that he would be removed as chairman of the powerful Senate committee on finance, Osmeña said "it was not a big loss" and vowed he would also resign as chairman of the Senate committees on local government and on government corporations and public enterprises.

"I am a senator and I will remain a senator," said Osmeña, who is in his last term.

"The finance committee is a very important committee but given all of the fiscal problems of this country today, I don’t think it is such a big loss," he said.

He said he was not even inclined to accept any chairmanship because he wanted to concentrate on an unspecified assignment on which he wanted to devote his full time and attention.

"It leaves me free as a bird. To return to the opposition where I’ve always been most of my life and where I am most comfortable. God help them," Osmeña said. – With Jess Diaz