Drilon says he’s proud of ‘productive’ Senate minority

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Senate minority Leader Franklin Drilon said on Monday he was proud that the six-member minority bloc was the “most productive” in the Senate before Congress went on a break last week.

But Senate President Aquilino Pimentel and Sen. Panfilo Lacson reminded Drilon that their group was productive because they were part of the supermajority then.

They were referring to the fact that except for Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Drilon, as well as Senators Francis Pangilinan, Bam Aquino, Leila de Lima and Risa Hontiveros were part of the majority bloc for seven months until their ouster last month.

The mostly Liberal Party senators were kicked out in the majority bloc by its members for voting against the bloc on several controversial issues.

Drilon said the minority bloc was able to pass seven of 10 bills of national significance– five approved on third and final reading while two on second reading.

“I am proud of our performance. We are the most productive group in the Senate. We did the lion’s share of the work in passing landmark legislation and bills of national significance,” Drilon said in a statement.

The seven bills include the Affordable Higher Education Act for All, Free Internet Access in Public Places Act, Expanded Maternity Leave Law, Mental Health Act, Philippine Food Technology Act, Speech Language Pathology Act and the adjustment of the present peso value of the amounts in the 87-year-old Revised Penal Code.

Pimentel and Lacson agreed that the minority bloc was the most productive.

“But they should also give credit that they had also been productive when they were part of the supermajority,” Pimentel told reporters.

“Agree, except that they were in the majority during their period of productivity,” Lacson tweeted. JE