Binay hits Revilla’s reason for voting against Zubiri

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Nancy Binay has branded as “petty” the rumor that her colleague Sen. Ramon Revilla’s twisted foot kicked out Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri from the Senate presidency.

Revilla himself confirmed that one reason for his grumblings against Zubiri’s leadership was his refusal to grant his request for virtual attendance because of his Achilles tendon injury.

Binay scoffed at Revilla’s reason to turn against Zubiri and vote for the new Senate President Francis Escudero.

“It was such a petty and useless reason. Is an injured foot enough reason to remove a Senate president?” Binay said in a dwIZ interview yesterday.

“I still don’t see how a deciding factor to boot out Zubiri was just because of Senator Bong’s foot?” she added.

Revilla’s issue with Zubiri, however, was a deciding factor in the swing vote for Escudero because he belongs to the four-member “Apat na Sikat” or “Artista” bloc with former action stars turned senators Jinggoy Estrada, Robin Padilla and Lito Lapid.

Binay also questioned the support of the 14 senators who sided with Escudero for a Senate resolution commending Zubiri “for his excellent performance and outstanding leadership as Senate President in the First and Second Regular Sessions of the Nineteenth Congress of the Philippines.”

She asked why they passed the resolution commending Zubiri when they voted to depose him from the Senate presidency.

In a separate dwPM interview yesterday, new Senate majority leader Francis Tolentino said the Senate resolution commending Zubiri was just part of the Senate tradition of parliamentary courtesy.

“That was a very statesman-like gesture to give praise to the predecessors. It’s a parliamentary form of respect,” Tolentino said.

The new Senate majority would respect the ill feelings of the “Solid 7” Zubiri bloc and would give them time to adjust during the break, Tolentino said.