Bribe probe roils Senate majority

There’s a “brewing” sentiment among some senators in the majority to kick out their colleagues from the Liberal Party for voting against them on crucial issues, according to Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III.

But Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III made it clear that the majority remained “intact” despite a recent wrangling over which committee should investigate the bribery scandal involving gambling tycoon Jack Lam.

Speaking to reporters, Sotto said he heard two or three senators saying they wanted the LP senators led by Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon to leave the majority.

“That’s a brewing concern by some members in the Senate that if you are in the majority, you should not be stymieing the actions of the majority,” he said.

‘New majority’

And if the LP senators leave the majority, Sotto said a “new majority” would emerge, but doubted that this would lead to a change in the chamber’s leadership. He said he was satisfied with Pimentel’s leadership.

Sen. JV Ejercito on Tuesday suggested that the LP senators decide whether or not to stay with the “supermajority bloc” since they vote against it most of the time. He later apologized to Drilon for offending the

latter.

The next day, Sen. Richard Gordon demanded that the LP senators leave the majority, noting that the “lines were not clear,” which left senators fighting with each other and their “objective” intentions maligned.

Reconsidered

Gordon said Tuesday’s vote on whether the referral of the inquiry into the bribery scandal to the committee on civil service headed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV should be reconsidered saw seven senators opposing it, four of them from LP.

“It is not good to see us fighting here. What should be seen here is we are in an intellectual discussion,” he told reporters.

Asked if the LP senators’ departure from the majority would keep the peace, he said this would “stop that feeling that there are some who are riding two boats.”

Not an issue

Pimentel, however, said that incidents in the past two days that saw some senators wrangling over which committee should investigate the bribery scandal were not an issue that would entail the current majority to rethink why they should be together.

“Don’t worry. The majority is intact as far as the substance is concerned,” the Senate President said.