THE dwindling ranks of President Duterte’s now ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), decimated by defections prior to his rise to power, is expected to swell anew following the formal installation on Monday of his two partymates—Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez—at the helm of the bicameral Congress.
At the opening session of the 17th Congress, senators elected Pimentel by an overwhelming majority to replace outgoing Senate President Franklin M. Drilon, who was voted Senate President pro tempore as part of a “coalition agreement” between the PDP-Laban, Drilon’s Liberal Party and the Nationalist People’s Coalition of newly elected Senate Majority Leader Vicente C. Sotto III.
Pimentel won the coveted post through a 20-3 vote among members of the 24-member chamber, with only three senators, Francis Escudero and Antonio Trillanes II, voting for Pimentel’s lone rival and Sen. Ralph Recto, who also voted for himself. Following tradition, Recto will assume the post of Minority Leader.
Absent at the voting on the first day of session of the new Congress was Sen. Alan Peter S. Cayetano, Pimentel’s initial challenger for Senate President, who also lost his earlier bid for the vice presidency in the May 9 elections as runningmate of President Duterte.
Also elected by senators at Monday’s opening session were former Eastern Samar Gov. Lutgardo Barbo as Senate Secretary and retired Maj. Gen. Jose Balajadia Jr. as the Senate sergeant at arms.
Despite their party being saddled by earlier defections, three PDP-Laban stalwarts, all from Mindanao, are now in control of the top posts in Malacañang, the Senate and the House of Representatives, prompting speculations the new ruling parly will swell anew with turncoats from other parties seeking affiliation with the party in power.
Former Senate President Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr., PDP-Laban founding chairman, confirmed the exodus is likely, but the new recruits may have to first undergo the “basic membership seminar required under party rules.”
“We are expecting that there will be additions to the party ranks,” Pimentel Jr. told the BusinessMirror following his son’s installation to the Senate presidency.
But Pimentel said the new Senate President will likely “insist that the process of the PDP-Laban party be observed” and applied to new recruits, including defectors from other parties.
In accepting his mandate as Senate President, Pimentel III said “change must also come to and from the Senate.”
“As President Rodrigo Duterte put it, the introduction of genuine and meaningful change is the purpose of his administration,” Pimentel III said as he listed 11 elements of the “Program of Government for Change,” which the senators of the majority bloc have agreed to push, including the adoption of a federal system of the government, all-out war against crime, drugs and corruption; tax reform; sustainable and inclusive economic growth; quality education and health care; environmental protection; and increased government assistance to the helpless and impoverished members of Philippine society.
Also at yesterday’s session, 12 newly elected senators took their oath to officially join 12 other incumbent senators to complete the 24-member chamber in conducting business of the 17th Congress.
Formally inducted into office anew were reelectionist Sens. Drilon, Sotto and Recto, along with comebacking Sens. Richard J. Gordon, Panfilo M. Lacson Sr., Juan Miguel Zubiri and Francis Pangilinan, along with neophyte Sens. Leila M. de Lima, Joel Villanueva, Sherwin T. Gatchalian, Risa Hontiveros and Emmanuel D. Pacquiao.
They will join incumbent Sens. Juan Edgardo M. Angara, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Nancy Binay, Cayetano, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Escudero, Gregorio Honasan II, Loren Legarda, Grace Poe, Antonio Trillanes IV and Cynthia Villar.