Senate needs correction after shock vote, shooting — Hontiveros

By Joseph Bernard A. Marzan

Sen. Risa Hontiveros said on Saturday, May 16, that errors in the Senate must be corrected after the chamber’s sudden leadership change and the shooting incident last week to regain public trust.

Hontiveros went to Iloilo over the weekend to attend a general assembly of the Iloilo Electric Cooperative 1 in Tigbauan and hold a small talk with Ilonggo youth leaders in the city.

She emphasized that the surprise vote on May 11 was a motion to vacate all seats, which meant that not only was Sen. Tito Sotto removed as Senate president, but all committee memberships were also stripped.

This meant that Hontiveros herself lost her leadership of three committees: Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation, Health and Demography, and Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality.

As a result, several bills, including at least 15 in the Health and Demography committee, and key electoral reforms, such as the anti-political dynasty and party-list system reform bills, are currently in limbo, pending the election of new committee chairpersons and assignment of members from the majority and minority blocs.

If that wasn’t enough, a shootout also occurred on May 13, which, although no one was harmed, left questions as to what really happened between agents of the National Bureau of Investigation and the Senate sergeant-at-arms.

New Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano made several statements that indirectly tied the minority to the shooting and even insinuated that they were plotting revenge against him by courting numbers for another vote, which reports said could happen Monday, May 18.

Hontiveros expressed her understanding that, following the events of the previous week, it would now be harder for the public to trust the Senate.

“It hurts. There are many questions [on trust in the Senate], and deservedly in the last few days—’Why do we still have to trust in the Senate?’, ‘It’s funny’, ‘What happened on Monday night was just drama and should not be believed’,” Hontiveros told the youth audience.

“Although I have the same suspicion, it hurts, because I’m a member there [the Senate]. I work there. So, why should you [the youth] still trust the Senate? Why should you trust the Senators?” she added.

If it were up to her, she would have forcefully said that the public should still trust the Senate, but she also accepted that corrections need to be made in the chamber.

“I’m tempted to say, ‘Please trust the Senate again’, but there’s a prejudicial question there. We need to correct to regain the trust of the people, especially of young people, because why would you support a system that has these kinds of setup, why should there be institutions like the Senate, if they cannot be trusted?” she said.

“Trust is earned. It is never demanded. It’s not certain. Before I can answer you, should you trust the Senate? There are still some things that we need to do. We will try to continue working on it next week,” she added.

She also assured the audience that, despite being in the minority, she would continue working toward achieving her goals, together with the new minority members, while thoroughly looking into what happened on May 13.

“After the events of Monday, we [also worked] on Tuesday and Wednesday, [then] we were hit by the worst, the situation tilted even further on Wednesday night [May 13]. We’re prepared, going back on Monday [May 18], to ask why such and such was wrong and look into what needs to be corrected,” the senator said.

“In the end, I hope that we will be able to achieve the mission that we have set ourselves. Well, [that’s] for us in the minority, I hope that there would be some in the majority who think like this because of what happened on Wednesday night,” she added.

‘PLEASE FOCUS ON INVESTIGATING’

The senator, who often touts her roots from Panay Island, also addressed recent statements by the new Senate president, Alan Peter Cayetano, who mentioned in a Facebook livestream that the minority members “disappeared like bubbles” when the shooting happened.

Hontiveros reiterated her recent statements in response to the Senate president, narrating that she finished the session early Wednesday evening with Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda and Sens. Sotto, Jinggoy Estrada, and Sherwin Gatchalian.

She then proceeded to Ninoy Aquino International Airport to catch a flight to Bacolod, where she was scheduled to attend a conference Thursday and Friday.

She called Cayetano’s statements mere “intrigue” and “gaslighting,” which were “unbecoming of a Senate President.”

“Those kinds of intrigues are unbecoming of a Senate President. He [Cayetano], as the leader of the Senate, and the majority, should lead in explaining what had happened [on May 13]. That’s why we need an investigation on the ugly things that should’ve never happened this week,” she told Daily Guardian.

“How can he even say that we were not there [at the Senate]? There were five of us who finished the session [to the end]. He wasn’t there at the session floor when we adjourned.”

“I saw many [comments], even online, asking them, why were they still there, in one room, doing a livestream, when the trouble broke out? So please, [Cayetano] should stop intriguing [and] gaslighting. The leadership, who should be the one explaining the most, is trying to blame the minority,” she added.