Imee Marcos ‘might handle’ four Senate committees, says Zubiri
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Imee Marcos may lead four committees in the Senate, including foreign relations, Senate President Pro Tempore Juan Miguel Zubiri said Wednesday.
“Actually she (Marcos) might be handling four committees,” Zubiri, who is poised to lead the upper chamber in the 19th Congress, said in an interview at the Senate.
Aside from keeping the chairmanship of electoral reforms and people’s participation panel, Zubiri said Marcos may also lead the committees on foreign relations, social justice, and cooperatives.
“So we are looking at four committees that she’ll be handling,” he pointed out.
”Masipag naman siya eh,” Zubiri said of Marcos, sister of newly-elected President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“I thank her, I thank Senator Imee dahil willing po siyang maghawak nitong apat na committees and we’re also looking at other possibilities,” he further said.
FILE PHOTO: Then-Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri during the Senate’s hybrid plenary session on Monday, May 23, 2022. – Zubiri, now Senate President Pro Tempore and the likely Senate President of the upper chamber in the 19th Congress, says on Wednesday, July 6, 2022, that Senator Imee Marcos “might be handling four committees,” including foreign relations. (Joseph Vidal/Senate PRIB)
Despite the emerging “supermajority” in the Senate, Zubiri made an assurance that the chamber would not become a rubber stamp of the new administration.
READ: Alan Peter as blue ribbon chair? Zubiri says ‘super majority’ to decide
Even during the 18th Congress, the Senate “never” became a rubber stamp, the senator stressed.
“Marami po tayong mga panukala na sa tingin namin hindi sangayon para sa ating bansa ay itinulak po ng administrasyon, hindi natin tinuloy,” he said, citing as example how the Senate rejected the proposed reimposition of the death penalty.
A bill reimposing the capital punishment was approved in the House of Representatives during the 17th Congress but it did not prosper in the Senate.
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