MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos may expect a more vigilant minority from the Senate as the 19th Congress opened its second regular session on Monday.
Currently, there are only two opposition members in the upper chamber — Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Senator Risa Hontiveros.
He conceded that the number of opposition senators growing anytime soon was unlikely.
“Wala. Ang pinaka-logical recruit namin e blood relative ng Presidente, baka hindi namin ma-recruit e,” he said when asked in a press briefing if there will be additional members in the minority group.
(None. Our most logical recruit is a blood relative of the President, so we might not be able to recruit them.)
The eldest sister of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is presently part of the Senate majority bloc.
Despite its small number, Pimentel said the opposition group would be more vigilant, especially when scrutinizing the national budget.
“We’ve been through this before, so more vigilance nga from the minority,” he said when asked what to expect from them in the second regular session of Congress.
“’Pag dating sa budget process, we will work harder. Kung last year e umabot lang tayo mga 1 a.m. or 2 a.m., this time, we will exhaust everything — our rights under our rules. Kung kailangangan hanggang alas 5 ng umaga gawin namin,” the opposition leader said.
(When it comes to the budget process, we will work harder. If last year, we only managed to stay until around 1 a.m. or 2 a.m., this time, we would exhaust everything — our rights under our rules. We will do it if we need to work until 5 in the morning.)
Pimentel also expressed hopes that Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri would stay true to his word in a speech when he recognized the importance of having fiscalizers in the upper chamber.
READ: Senate to ‘sail against the wind,’ won’t be dictated by ‘political weather vane’ — Zubiri
In the said speech, Zubiri said: “A Senate without fiscalizers loses its potency and forfeits its credentials as a democratic body.
“We will respect the collegial nature of our institution. We will seek consensus and compromise, whenever possible, or divide the house, if needed,” the Senate leader said.
“We will debate, because a legislature which no longer does, ceases to be the country’s highest deliberative body,” he added.
While he praised Zubiri’s speech, Pimentel said he warned the Senate leader he could use this remark against him in the future.
“We would like to thank the Senate President for recognizing and putting value to the role of the minority as fiscalizers, pero sinabi ko nga sa kanya pagkatapos, e gawin nating totoo ‘yung sinabi mo at (but I told him what he said in his speech must come true) and never cut the time of the minority when we want to interpellate. Ganun dapat (That’s how it should be). You never cut the time of the minority,” he said.
It happened to him, he said, when he was interpellating on the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) measure, which later became law.
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