A neophyte senator calling the shots?
“May awa din naman ako." (I also have mercy.)
This is what world-boxing-champion-turned-senator Manny Pacquiao said in jest when asked what would happen to the remaining committees held by Liberal Party senators, who were stripped of their powers on Monday, February 27.
It was Pacquiao, a key administration ally, who motioned to relieve Senators Franklin Drilon, Francis Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros, and Paolo Benigno Aquino IV from their posts.
Drilon was removed as Senate President Pro-Tempore, Pangilinan was relieved as agriculture committee chairman, and Aquino was sacked as education committee chairman. Akbayan's Hontiveros was also removed as health committee head.
At present, Drilon is still the head of the committee on constitutional amendments; Aquino is still the chair of the committee on science and technology; and Hontiveros remains chair of the committee on women and children.
Administration senator Cynthia Villar, however, said Drilon might still be booted out of the committee if the measure seeking to change the Constitution does not move under him.
“They will think about it. Kung di magmo-move yun, baka pati yun ma-transfer,” Villar said. (They will think about it. If it doesn't move, even that [committee] might be transferred.)
Villar said it was Pacquiao who volunteered to move to oust the 4 LP-allied senators: "Gusto n'ya yon."
Pacquiao was a former member of the LP before joining PDP-Laban in 2012. He, however, ran under former vice president Jejomar Binay's United Nationalist Alliance in 2016. He then returned to the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban), the party of the President, after President Rodrigo Duterte won.
In September 2016, Pacquiao also moved to oust Senator Leila de Lima as chairperson of the Senate committee on justice, after she presented whistle-blower Edgar Matobato, who accused President Rodrigo Duterte of ordering killings when he was mayor of Davao City. – Rappler.com