MANILA, Philippines -- After engaging members of the Commission on Appointments (CA) in verbal tussles over the confirmation of some military officers recently, Senator Ana Consuelo ?Jamby? Madrigal now wants several colleagues out of the powerful constitutional body.
In an April 17 letter to Senate President and concurrent CA chairman Manuel Villar, Madrigal sought a reorganization of the body, saying its present composition does not reflect the members? party affiliations, and also requested that all meetings and hearings of the commission be suspended pending a revamp.
The CA scrutinizes and affirms presidential appointments to the Cabinet and other top government posts.
Those Madrigal wants stripped of their CA seats are Senators Joker Arroyo of Kampi (Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino or Partner of the Free Filipino), Pia Cayetano and Richard Gordon, both independent, Juan Ponce-Enrile (Partido ng Masang Pilipino or Party of the Filipino Masses), and Miriam Defensor-Santiago (People?s Reform Party).
Citing records of the Commission on Elections, Madrigal said in her letter: ?I recently reviewed the composition of the members of the Commission on Appointments and notice a seeming violation of the proportional party representation requirement of the Constitution.?
She said these senators are not entitled to CA, either because they don?t have any party affiliation in the case of Gordon and Cayetano, or because their numbers do not entitle them to a seat.
Madrigal, who listed herself as a member of PDP-Laban argued that Arroyo and Santiago, being the only members of their respective parties in the Senate, are not entitled to any seats.
She pointed out that Enrile and Senator Jose ?Jinggoy? Estrada are the only two members of the PMP, the party of the deposed President Joseph Estrada, in the Senate. Thus, the party is entitled to only one seat.
Madrigal said she is furnishing House Speaker Prospero Nograles a copy of the same letter calling for a revamp of the CA, as she criticized the lower chamber?s composition in the body.
She pointed out that the ruling Lakas-NUCD has five representatives to the constitutional body when it is entitled to only four; and Kampi three when it should only have two; while the party-list Cibac (Citizens? Battle Against Corruption), which has only two members in the Lower House, is not entitled to any seat at all but is represented by Joel Villanueva.
She said that with 20 members in the Lower House, the Liberal Party, which is not represented in the present CA, is entitled to one seat.
?In view thereof, it is respectfully requested that the present membership of the Commission on Appointments be reorganized pursuant to the strict requirement of Section 18, Article VI of the Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court in the case of Guingona vs. Gonzales (G.R. No. 106971, Oct. 20, 1992),? Madrigal said.
