MANILA, Philippines— Sen. Mark Villar has joined the 13-member majority bloc in the Senate, according to Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Zubiri made the confirmation after the Senate elected Villar as chairman of the Senate committee on public works and a member of the Commission on Appointments (CA) as part of the majority bloc.
“Mr. President, pursuant to Section 18, Article 6 of the 1987 Constitution, I move that Senator Mark Villar be elected as a member of the Commission on Appointments vice Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri. That’s myself. I’m giving way to Senator Villar, Mr. President” Zubiri said in the plenary.
“On the part of the majority pursuant to Rule 10, Section 13 of the Rules of the Senate, I move to elect Senator Mark Villar as chairperson of the Committee on Public Works, vice Senator Vicente Soto III,” the majority leader added.
Both motions were approved on the Senate floor.
Zubiri, in a Viber message, later confirmed Villar’s decision to join the majority.
“Yes, we just elected him to the CA and Public Works committee as part of the majority,” Zubiri said.
Villar joined Sotto, Zubiri, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian and 10 other senators in the majority bloc: Sens. Bam Aquino, JV Ejercito, Francis Escudero, Risa Hontiveros, Panfilo Lacson, Lito Lapid, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, Erwin Tulfo, Raffy Tulfo and Joel Villanueva.
Villar’s sister, Sen. Camille Villar, meanwhile, remains with the 10-member minority bloc led by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano.
The other minority members are Sens. Pia Cayetano, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Jinggoy Estrada, Loren Legarda, Rodante Marcoleta, Imee Marcos and Robin Padilla.
READ: Legarda regrets siding with minority group, says Lacson
Estrada and Marcoleta are currently detained in a Quezon City jail on separate plunder charges, while Dela Rosa has been in hiding amid an arrest order issued by the International Criminal Court.
Legarda, meanwhile, has been out of the country since Aug. 3 following the Office of the Ombudsman’s announcement that she and her son, Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste, would face a preliminary investigation over P10 billion worth of alleged “ghost” solar power projects.
Before joining the majority, Villar voted with the bloc on Sept. 23 to amend the impeachment court’s July 6 ruling requiring a two-thirds majority, or at least 16 votes, of the Senate’s full 24-member composition to secure a conviction.
Under the amended ruling, the two-thirds threshold would be computed based only on the number of senators legally and factually capable of participating in impeachment proceedings.
Also on Thursday, Cayetano informed the Senate plenary that he would replace Legarda as a member of the CA.
“Given the situation that three of the members of the minority in the Commission on Appointments are either politically or legally or both prevented from attending, I’d just like to manifest for the record that this representation will replace Senator Legarda,” the minority leader said.
A motion was subsequently made during the plenary session to formalize Cayetano’s membership in the CA. /dm