Risa Hontiveros Expresses Concern Over Alan Peter Cayetano's Election as CA's Minority Floor Leader
While nobody during the first plenary session objected to Senator Alan Peter Cayetano's election as minority floor leader to the Commission on Appointments (CA), Senator Risa Hontiveros, afterwards, said that she has “serious concern over the election of a CA minority leader who is not an original member of the minority in the Senate.”
Cayetano is supposedly part of the "independent bloc" in the Senate. The Supreme Court rules that the Senate has jurisdiction on who belongs to either bloc and who doesn't, but Hontiveros argued that it is important to ensure that we have a "genuine minority voice."
“Hindi pwedeng majority tayo o independent tayo o minority tayo sa iba’t ibang panahon para sa iba’t ibang layunin,” Hontiveros noted. “It is important for bodies such as these to have clarity as to the positions of each members. This is important for lines of accountability."
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Cayetano was first classified under the Senate's majority bloc. He then asked the CA to reclassify him.
“If you don’t vote for the Senate President and I would have wished to have voted for you, Mr. President and it’s not about not voting for you, you know my circumstances and my relationship vis-a-vis this administration," expressed Cayetano, speaking directing to Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri. "So may I ask that that be corrected and that I also be considered part of the minority, Mr. President.”
According to him, based on precedents in the Senate and House of Representatives, lawmakers who do not identify with both groups should be deemed “independent minorities.”
After his appointment, Cayetano nevertheless thanked Hontiveros, who is the Senate's Deputy Minority Leader.
