Senate lets go of Zubiri

MANILA, Philippines—The Senate has decided not to act on Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri’s resignation and just accept it at face value.

The decision, Senate Minority Leader Alan Cayetano said, was reached in a caucus held Wednesday or immediately after Zubiri announced his resignation on the floor.

“The senators decided that we should not even vote or we should not even take it upon ourselves whether we should accept or not accept a resignation. We should just take it at face value,” Cayetano said during a regular forum in the Senate on Thursday.

“Because if we accept it then we will be admitting that we have the powers to accept it and it will become a precedent that every time that happens we will have to vote,” he said, “We had a consensus that when someone resigned, resigned na yun [he or she is considered resigned]. There’s no need to accept it.”

Before the caucus, Senate President Juan-Ponce Enrile announced on the floor that the Senate would have to study first the resignation of Zubiri and that it would not act rashly on its decision.

But Cayetano said it was not clear if there was any law providing for the Senate and the House of Representatives to accept a colleague’s resignation.

Besides, Cayetano said the Senate might be accused of being part of a “moro-moro” (it’s all for show) if it would not accept Zubiri’s resignation.

“And that would do injustice not only to the Senate but to Senator Zubiri himself who did this act, and we don’t want that his unselfish act be tainted because senators refuse to accept the resignation,” he further said.