Drilon mum on leadership change or looming opposition in Senate

Senate President Franklin Drilon INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

Will there be a change of leadership in the Senate or a looming opposition Senate under the incoming administration of presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte?

This was the question that incumbent Senate President Franklin Drilon, vice chairman of administration’s Liberal Party (LP), was not yet ready to answer when asked in an interview at the Senate on Wednesday.

“I don’t want to talk about that at this point. I think it’s premature,” Drilon said when asked if there will be a change in leadership when the 17th Congress opens in July.

Asked again if he was ready to be with the new minority group, the Senate leader said, “I think it’s premature to talk about that. Let’s first do our duty to proclaim the newly-elected president and vice-president. That’s the first order of business, so that we can provide stability and a smooth transition of power into the next administration.”

However, in the Senate, Drilon explained that present leadership will continue to perform until there’s an election of new officers in the chamber.

“In the Senate there is continuity, and whoever are the leaders of the 16th Congress will continue to function as such until the elections take place at the opening of Congress,” he said.

“In the House of Representatives, since all their terms have ended or will end on June 30, 2016, then I think the tradition is that the Secretary-General of the House presides over the session.”

“We have gone through this before. Senator Villar was the Senate President, and he continue to be Senate President until the elections for the new officers of the Senate took place, consistent with the Constitution, and that is at the opening,” Drilon said, referring to former Senate President Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr.

At least seven administration candidates are in the “Magic 12” of the Senate based on partial and unofficial counts of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Transparency Server.

The seven are Drilon, who is topping the senatorial race, former Secretary Joel Villanueva, returning Senators Panfilo Lacson and Francis Pangilinan, incumbent Senator Ralph Recto, former JusticeSecretary Leila de Lima and former Congresswoman Risa Hontiveros.

Drilon, Pangilinan, Recto and De Lima are with LP; Villanueva and Lacson are independent while Hontiveros is with Akbayan party-list. All seven ran under the administration’s party with former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II as its standard-bearer and Camarines Sur Representative Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo as vice president.

However, instead of discussing the composition of the next Senate, Drilon said there should be smooth transition of power first from the incumbent President Beningo Aquino III’s administration to the incoming administration of presumptive President Rodrigo Duterte.

“In 1992, I was the Executive Secretary, and my mandate as Executive Secretary of the late President [Corazon ‘Cory’] Aquino was to ensure the smooth transition of power between from the Aquino administration into the [Fidel] Ramos administration. You must remember that the 1992 elections was the first after the People Power Revolt, so it was a very delicate process,” he said.

“We do not see such a difficulty today, due to the fact that we have had a number of elections, but we will still be vigilant in our efforts to make sure that there will be no interruptions in the smooth transition of power to the Duterte administration,” the Senate leader added. RAM