Pimentel: No clamor to remove Gordon as blue ribbon chair

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III on Sunday hinted that possible moves to remove Senator Richard Gordon as chairman of the blue ribbon committee will fail.

"There is no clamor from within the majority for any change in any committee chairmanship," Pimentel said in a text message.

He was reacting to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV's pronouncement on Saturday that he will ask for the removal of Gordon as blue ribbon committee chair on Tuesday.

Trillanes said Gordon should be removed from as the committee's chair to give way to a more in-depth investigation of the recent killings of drug suspects in police raids.

Gordon is also the chairman of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, which jointly probed drug-related killings last year with Senator Panfilo Lacson's committee on public order and human rights.

The joint probe found no evidence that the spate of drug-related killings were state sponsored.

Trillanes had also said that he will call for Senate caucus on Tuesday to tackle the possibility of conducting an inquiry into the killing of 81 drug suspects in police raids last week in Bulacan and Metro Manila and the death of 17-year-old Kian Loyd delos Santos. —ALG, GMA News