Pro-Lopez senators saddened by her rejection as DENR chief

DENR Secretary Gina Lopez delivers a statement on Wednesday, May 3, 2017, after she was not confirmed by the CA. (Photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

All four Liberal Party (LP) senators on Wednesday voted to confirm the appointment of Environment Secretary Gina Lopez, but their votes were not enough to get the approval of the powerful Commission on Appointments.

The four are Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, and Senators Francis Pangilinan, and Bam Aquino. Recto is part of the Senate majority bloc while the three other LP senators are all in the minority group.

“I represent the LP contingent in the Senate and with the consent of Senators Recto, Drilon, Aquino, and of course this representation, we’d like to place on record that we likewise voted for the confirmation of Secretary Gina Lopez because we believe in her qualification and her abilities to lead the department,” Pangilinan, LP president, said.

In an interview with reporters after the voting, Drilon said the LP as a bloc voted to confirm Lopez’s appointment.

“Unfortunately, we lost in the vote,” he said.

“Sad. The Liberal Party would have wanted to see Secretary Lopez carry out her programs, but it’s democracy and that’s our system,” Drilon, LP vice chair, added.

Aside from the four LP members, three other senators – Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III and Senators Loren Legarda and Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito also stood up on the floor to manifest that they voted for Lopez’s confirmation.

Sotto, Legarda, and Ejercito are all part of the majority group.

“I voted for the confirmation of Gina Lopez as Secretary of DENR,” Sotto said. “Therefore I wish to manifest that I’m not supporting the committee report.”

Legarda registered her “strong dissent” to the commission’s rejection of Lopez’s appointment, saying the latter could have been one of the “greatest” secretaries of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

“I wish I could stand here to sponsor the nomination or the confirmation of who could have been one of the greatest secretaries of environment,” she said. “It breaks my heart to read my manifestation but I will.”

“Mr. President, it’s unfortunate that we let pass a great opportunity for my much beloved DENR to be led by someone, who has the passion, integrity , and political will to implement our environmental laws,” Legarda added.

She said she hoped that the next DENR secretary would have the same passion, political will and integrity like Lopez “but would not suffer the same fate in the commission.”

Sen. Manny Pacquaio, who presided over Lopez’s confirmation hearing as chair of the CA’s Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, was also saddened by the decision of the panel that recommended the rejecttion of the nominee’s nomination.

“But the commission has voted today and has met the required 13 votes,” Pacquiao said when he presented the committee’s recommendation on the floor.

“With sadness in my heart, this committee, through this plenary, is terminating its deliberation on Gina Lopez’s appointment not in the way I personally wanted to but by the the decision of the majority.”

“It’s not the end of your career, but only the beginning,” Pacquiao added.

Other CA members kept mum on their votes since it was done in an executive session. /atm