De Lima ousted as Senate justice committee chair

SENATOR Leila de Lima was evicted   chair of the Senate  committee on justice and  was immediately replaced by  Senator  Richard Gordon.

It was Senator Manny Pacquiao, who made a motion on   the  floor  to declare vacant the chairmanship as well as the membership of   the committee, which is investigating the   alleged extrajudicial killings in the country since the  Duterte administration  took over .

Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon objected  to the motion, which prompted to the  suspension of the session and the  holding of a senators’ caucus.

When the session  resumed, the chamber immediately put to a vote  the motion.  Drilon maintained his   objection, seconded by   neophyte Senator   Risa Hontiveros.

“We  register our objection. We believe there’s no basis for the motion,”  Drilon said.

Hontiveros said: “On behalf of Akbayan party, I respectfully register my objection.”

Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III then  decided to divide the chamber and made the roll call vote.

Sixteen  senators voted in favor of Pacquiao’s   motion, four were against it  while two abstained.

The four  who voted against the motion were Drilon, Hontiveros and Senators Bam Aquino  and  Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan.

Drilon, Aquino and Pangilinan are members of  the Liberal Party, while  Hontiveros  belongs to the Akbayan partylist group but she ran under the LP-led slate during the last May 2016 elections.

During the voting, Senate Minority Leader   Ralph Recto manifested that the minority  bloc would not take part in the  voting, saying the issue   should be resolved  among the majority group.

After the voting,  Senate Majority Leader  Vicente “Tito” Sotto III immediately  moved to elect “reluctant”     Gordon  as new head  of the committee and Senator Panfilo Lacson as vice chairman.

Senators Pacquiao,  Pangilinan, de Lima, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Grace Poe,  Alan Cayetano were also elected members of the committee. /rga/ac

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