Santiago loses last-ditch bid for blue ribbon panel

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago made a last-minute bid on Monday to chair the powerful blue ribbon committee. But Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile decided to give the coveted committee to neophyte Senator Teofisto Guingona III, a member of President Aquino’s Liberal Party.

Three other Liberal senators succeeded in clinching the most important committees over the objections of non-LP senators led by Senator Edgardo Angara.

Angara disclosed that Enrile had already agreed to designate Santiago as blue ribbon panel chairman, but later  changed his mind.

Enrile announced the chairmanships of various committees after a two-hour caucus with the senators.

“It’s a make believe Senate,” Angara told newsmen to express his dismay over the Senate leadership’s decision to yield to the LP senators’ wish to control the most important committees.

Justifying his decision, Enrile said he could not assign any committee to Santiago because she did not bother to attend the caucus where the committee assignments were discussed. “She said she would stay with the minority. And I have not talked to her,” the Senate president told newsmen after the caucus.

“I was the one who assumed the responsibility for distributing the committees and I left it to them to do whatever they want.”

A senator who spoke on condition of anonymity quoted Enrile as telling his colleagues in the Senate that he decided not to assign any committee to Santiago “because she was personally attacking me.” The day before, Santiago said the Senate leadership was unstable or fragile because of the conflicts over the committee assignments.

The other LP senators who were named chairmen of the leading committees were Frank Drilon, finance; Francis Pangilinan, agriculture and Ralph Recto, ways and means and government corporations and enterprises.

Two independent senators closely allied with President Aquino also got key committees —Serge Osmeña, energy and banks, currencies and financial institutions and Francis Escudero, committee on justice and human rights and committee on national defense.

The other committee assignments were: Jinggoy Estrada, labor and employment; Gregorio Honasan, public order and illegal drugs, agrarian reform and public information and mass media; Ramon Revilla Jr., public works and highways and public services; Lito Lapid, games and amusement and tourism; Angara, education and science and technology; Loren Legarda, climate change and foreign relations, cultural communities; Juan Miguel Zubiri, environment and natural resources and cooperatives; Manuel Villar, economic affairs and trade and commerce; Ferdinand Marcos Jr. local government and urban planning and housing; Panfilo Lacson, accounts; Antonio Trillanes, civil service and government reorganization; and Pia Cayetano, health, women and youth and ethics.

Joker Arroyo did not get any committee because he did not ask for one.

Reporting for work for the first time since the July 26 opening of the 15th Congress, Santiago said the blue ribbon panel should be headed by a senior senator  like her with a track record in fighting corruption.

“I really don’t have any strong interest in it but I just thought that is where I am good at,” she told newsmen.

“In the Senate, I have a record for fighting anomalies.  I will expose it at grave threat to my own reputation because the enemy of course  is like the devil that is never idle.”

She said among her credentials is being an recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service. She won the award for moral leadership in reforming a corrupt government agency, the then Commission on Immigration and Deportation.

Santiago would also want to retain her chairmanship of the committee on foreign affairs and her membership in the Commission on Appointments.

But  she has made her demand in the committee assignment too late.

Drilon, LP president, pointed out that the senators had already decided in last week’s caucus that the blue ribbon would be one of the major committees to be given to Liberal senators.

Santiago said it would be inappropriate to give the blue ribbon to a neophyte senator, referring to Guingona, also a former congressman from Guingoog City.

“I am a senior senator on my third term.  Why should it be given to a junior senator? I am a good friend to “TG” Guingona.  I like him.”

Santiago, who is closely allied with Manuel Villar,  has made it clear that she is joining the minority bloc in the Senate.

Reminded that key committees such as blue ribbon are traditionally given to a member of the majority bloc, Santiago pointed out that she belongs to the combined groups of Villar and Edgardo with a majority of 12 members. She said it is the four LP senators who are the minority.

“We are 12.  We cannot be dictated by four people,” she said. What logic is it that four members of a party can control 21 senators.

Show me what logic is it in astrophysics does it take that?  How can that happen?” –Fel Maragay, Manila Standard Today