Zubiri: ‘Not in my character’ to order people what to do

MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri maintains that he is not someone who orders fellow senators around even if he leads the chamber.

In an ABS-CBN News Channel interview on Thursday, Zubiri was asked if it was part of his duty to look after his colleagues in light of their heated verbal exchanges with members of the House of Representatives.

“Remember that I am working with 23 independent republics, although we have a super majority now of 22 members. It’s not my attitude and not my character to tell my people what to do. I am only what you call in the Supreme Court ‘one amongst equals,’” he replied during an interview over ANC.

Zubiri also emphasized that it was“beyond [his] pay grade” to push around fellow senators. He specifically named Sen. Imee Marcos, who earlier questioned the P26.7 billion allocation for the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Ayuda Para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP).

“With Senator Marcos, it’s beyond my pay grade. She’s a super [sister], right? She’s the sister of the president and the first cousin of the speaker. But I respect her position, being the chair of the committee on electoral reforms,” Zubiri said.

For Senator Marcos, AKAP was used to lure Filipinos into participating in the signature drive launched by movers of people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution.

READ: DSWD defends AKAP: ‘We don’t create magical projects’

“The leader of this institution of the Senate cannot order the senators around. We may appeal, we may ask, but at the end of the day, we respect the committee system, which has been the case in the last 105 years [of] existence of the Senate,” Zubiri emphasized.

Moving past the “bickering,” on Wednesday, Zubiri disclosed that he and House Speaker Martin Romualdez had already agreed to work together professionally and let go of the disagreements from the signature campaign for Charter change.