Not surprisingly, world boxing champ Sen. Manny Pacquiao was given the sports committee, while the committee’s gambling half went to a former police chief, Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
“No one was interested in the committee on games and amusement, so Ping (Lacson) received it,” Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said on Tuesday.
Lacson said as much: “During our supermajority caucus days before the opening of Congress, we agreed to choose our committees. No one chose (the committee on) games when it was separated from the sports (committee). There were no takers (so) I took it.”
Without a single dissenting vote, the Senate opted on Monday to break up the committee on games, amusement and sports into two, with Sotto proposing that the newly formed sports committee be headed by Pacquiao because the boxing champ had requested it.
As of Tuesday, the chairmanship of 36 Senate committees had been settled, with the chamber reorganized under Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III. Each committee has its own funding and will have nine members.
‘Unli’ amendments
Splitting the committee on games, amusement and sports via Senate Resolution No. 68 brings to 40 the chamber’s standing committees.
The resolution was adopted after what Sotto had described as “unli” (unlimited) amendments to correct clerical errors and revise several phrases in the text which had the senators discussing the resolution at least thrice on the floor.
Under the resolution, the games and amusement committee will handle all matters, “such as, but not limited to casinos, lotteries, jai alai and horse racing.”
The sports committee will be in charge of matters relating to the promotion of physical fitness, wrestling, boxing, basketball and other professional and amateur grass-roots sports, as well as elite sports development.”
Tug-of-war
Before the split, the old committee on games, amusement and sports had to handle a wide range of issues based on the published Rules of the Senate, among them “lotteries, jai alai, horse racing, dog racing, wrestling, boxing, basketball and all other professional sports as well as matters relating to amateur grassroots and elite sports development.”
The two new committees were among 12 bodies whose chairs and members were selected during Monday’s session, following the reorganization of the first batch of 21 committees last week. Three more committees were assigned their own chairs on Tuesday.
The committee chairmanship had been at the crux of the
tug-of-war between Pimentel and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano for the Senate presidency.
Aside from Lacson and Pacquiao, the following were assigned to chair the different committees: Sen. Richard Gordon, the committee on government-owned and -controlled corporations; Sen. Loren Legarda, climate change; Sen. Francis Escudero, banks, financial institutions and currencies; Senators Joel Villanueva and Sherwin Gatchalian, youth and economic affairs, respectively; Sen. Leila de Lima, electoral reforms and people’s participation; Sen. Paulo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, science and technology; Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, cooperatives; Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, local government; Sen. Grace Poe, public information and mass media; Senator Cayetano, foreign relations; Sen. Gregorio Honasan II, peace, unification and reconciliation, and Sen. Nancy Binay, cultural communities.
Sotto, who was privy to negotiations among lawmakers that eventually led to Pimentel’s selection as Senate President, had earlier said his group “did not like the committee chairmanships and memberships that (Cayetano) was (proposing).”
Vision keeper
Cayetano, a defeated vice presidential candidate, has since decided to be an “independent” senator in the meantime, aligning with neither the majority nor the minority while vowing to be a “vision keeper” for President Duterte, his running mate in the May elections.
In June, Pimentel said he was still hoping to convince Cayetano to join the supermajority, along with the latter’s allies.
But Cayetano and his supporters claimed that he had the numbers to be elected Senate President.
Cayetano and Zubiri later questioned the assignment of committee chairmanships to certain members of the supermajority, to which Pimentel responded: “I owe it to the early supporters who joined the majority (to) respect their first choice of committees, and if there will be changes it will be with their consent. There will not be any change without their consent.”
But the committees on public order as well as justice and human rights were given to nonallies—Senators Lacson and De Lima, Cayetano and Zubiri pointed out, adding that these were sensitive committees close to President Duterte’s advocacy against drugs and corruption.
Pimentel countered that both De Lima and Lacson were a perfect fit for the committees, with Lacson being a former police chief under President Joseph Estrada, and De Lima being a justice secretary under President Benigno Aquino III.