2 more senators back call to convene ethics committee
Senator Teofisto Guingona III. INQUIRER.net file photo
MANILA, Philippines – Two senators have joined Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s call for the Senate to convene the committee on ethics that will hear complaints against a member of the chamber.
Santiago wrote Senate President Franklin Drilon last Monday (December 9) requesting him to organize the ethics committee after she filed a complaint against Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce-Enrile for “disorderly behavior.”
“It should be convened because that’s a regular committee of the Senate. That should be convened,” Senator Teofisto Guingona III told reporters on Thursday.
Guingona, a member of the majority bloc, said the committee should be organized by next year.
Asked if an ethics investigation into Santiago’s complaint would further divide the chamber, the senator said: “The ethics committee is there for that reason, for complaints against peers so it has to be organized and it has to hear whatever complaints there are from whatever party.”
Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, in an interview Wednesday, said all committees should have been organized at the start of the new Congress.
But the Senate has yet to organize the ethics committee, five months after the16th Congress opened last July.
“Usually pag start ng Congress lahat ng committee binubuo agad or ino-organize agad, minsan may mga naiiwan na isa o tatlong committees pero hindi aabutin ng two or three months organized na ‘yan,” said Sotto, an opposition member.
Told about Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano’s statement that there were other more pressing matters in the Senate, Sotto said: “Well, I think the image of the Senate is an urgent matter…”
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