Senate fails to complete CA panel members

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate on Monday elected nine majority members to the Commission on Appointments (CA), following a debate over how seats in the panel should be distributed between the majority and minority blocs.

With Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano withdrawing his nomination to the body, Senators Ronald dela Rosa, JV Ejercito, Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Go, Rodante Marcoleta, Imee Marcos, Raffy Tulfo, Joel Villanueva and Mark Villar were elected by the chamber to sit in the CA.

Villanueva invoked an 80-20 computation of proportional representation between blocs, citing jurisprudence where the Supreme Court (SC) upheld rounding off proportional representation in the House of Representatives’ CA contingent.

“The computation is based on an 80-20 representation from the majority and minority. Eighty percent of 12 members would be equal to 9.6, which may be rounded out to 10,” Villanueva said, noting that 19 senators currently belong to the majority.

This leaves the minority with two seats, citing a computation of 20 percent of five members of the bloc.

Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III objected, arguing that the Constitution and the SC had emphasized representation along party lines, not bloc-based proportionality.

“Last I know… the SC decided that if there’s controversy in the composition of the CA, it is very clear that the Senate must follow the party lines and party representation… therefore, there is no such thing as 9.6, 2.5,” Sotto said.

“It should be, if members of the NPC are six, three of them should be in the CA. Members of the NP are five, and therefore two of them should be in CA. The rest are single members of each party, and therefore they could talk to the other members so that their .5 could be a total of one for each representation,” he said.

Cayetano intervened, urging a temporary solution to allow the chamber to proceed.

“I ask that my name be withdrawn as a nominee so that the nine other members from the majority may be confirmed today,” he said.

With Cayetano’s withdrawal, Sotto lifted his objection, and the chamber elected nine senators from the majority bloc to the CA.

Meanwhile, the House constituted the first seven of their 12-man panel to the CA.

Rep. Ramon Guico Jr. (Pangasinan 5th district) was named head of the House delegation.

Aside from Guico, the other House members named to the CA are Alfredo Garbin Jr. (Ako Bicol), Jose Aquino II (Butuan lone district), Antonio Albano (Isabela 1st district), Lani Mercado-Revilla (Cavite 2nd district), Benjamin Agarao Jr. (Laguna 4th district) and Jardin Jesus Romualdo (Camiguin lone district). — Delon Porcalla