Senior senators get dibs on major panel chairmanships — Drilon

Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — Senate tradition dictates that seniority be given a “heavier” consideration in selecting the chairman of a major committee rather than being just a “topnotcher” in the elections, outgoing Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said Friday.

While “everybody” is qualified to chair a major Senate panel, Drilon said the “senior ones would be given priority” as a matter of tradition.

“The tradition in the Senate is that seniority is given weight and recognition…Of course, everything is a matter of compromise but certainly being a topnotcher is a factor in your favor, but as far as I recall, seniority is a determining factor or is a weighty consideration or a heavier consideration rather than your rank in the election,” Drilon told reporters in an online interview.

Among the major committees in the upper chamber is the finance committee, which handles the national budget, according to Drilon.

The Senate finance committee is currently being chaired by Senator Sonny Angara.

Other major committees include the blue ribbon panel, chaired by outgoing Senator Richard Gordon, and the ways and means committee currently led by Senator Pia Cayetano.

“I don’t remember or I don’t recall any neophyte senator getting the Committee on Finance or the Committee on Ways and Means or the blue ribbon committee,” Drilon added.

He recalled getting the blue ribbon committee chairmanship when he first entered the Senate in 1995, saying he was “criticized” for accepting it despite being a neophyte lawmaker.

“When I was new in 1995, because of the closeness to the late Sen. President [Edgardo] Angara, he passed on to me the blue ribbon committee,’ Drilon said.

“He was criticized for that and I was criticized for accepting it—not in public but within the Senate—because I was a neophyte senator, so there are certain traditions which we observe,” he added.

For the 19th Congress, neophyte senators-elect Robin Padilla, Raffy Tulfo and Mark Villar will join the 24-member chamber.

Padilla ranked first in the senatorial race while Tulfo ranked third. Villar, meanwhile, placed sixth.

/MUF