Drilon: Padilla would need ‘lots of schooling’ as Cha-cha panel chair

Senator-elect Robin Padilla “needs a lot of schooling” as the chairman of the Senate Constitutional Amendments and Revisions of Codes should have a wide legal knowledge, outgoing Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said.

In a television interview, Drilon said he joins Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, who is poised to sit as the next Senate president, in advising Padilla to study more as he seeks the chairmanship of one of the major committees in the Senate.

“You know the committee that he chose to head, the Committee on Constitutional Amendments and Revision of Codes and Laws, this requires...legal knowledge and not only legal knowledge, you must have an exposure to the Constitution and it also said revisions of codes and laws and the codes there would refer to major laws like Civil Code, the Revised Penal Code, the Corporation Code, all the codified laws,” Drilon said in an ANC interview.

“And it’s not easy to do that. I don’t claim to know all of those, but certainly to a neophyte senator who has no exposure to these subjects, he needs a lot of schooling,” the veteran lawmaker said.

GMA News Online has reached out to Padilla for comment.

Further, Drilon said Padilla should be able to debate the “substance” of the amendment that he would like to introduce to the Constitution so he can “come up with the most reasonable policy.”

On Wednesday, Zubiri disclosed that Padilla's group has been negotiating with his bloc to give the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments to the neophyte senator.

“Yan ang adhikain niya e. ‘Yan ang gusto niya. [That's his desire. That's what he wants.] Let him prove his worth,” Zubiri said about Padilla's plan to head one of the major committees, adding that no one from their bloc wanted to get the panel.

Senate minority

On the other hand, Drilon said re-elected Senator Risa Hontiveros should have “prior claim” to the Senate minority leader post, being the lone candidate from the opposition slate who won a seat in the upper chamber.

“The only opposition candidate who won is Risa Hontiveros and therefore, by that circumstance, she should have the prior claim to the Senate opposition leader,” Drilon said.

So far, Hontiveros and Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III have expressed their intent to join the minority bloc.

Senator Pia Cayetano and her brother, returning Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, are reportedly joining the minority.

For Drilon, Zubiri’s announcement that Senator Sherwin Gatchalian is poised to be the Senate Ways and Means Committee chairman in the 19th Congress is an “indication” that Pia will join the minority.

Pia is the chairperson of the ways and means committee in the 18th Congress.

By tradition, members of the majority keeps their chairmanship of major committees, such as the ways and means panel, following the principle of the equity of the incumbent.

“One thing I noticed is that Pia Cayetano who is the present chair of our committee on ways and means, a very important committee and talks about taxes, will be replaced by Win Gatchalian,” he noted.

“This is a very significant development because the majority senators would have the first crack on the major committees... The fact that she lost that committee to Win Gatchalian is an indication to me that she wants to join the minority,” Drilon said.

After Senator Cynthia Villar announced that she is no longer interested in the Senate race, Zubiri bared his bloc's choices for the other leadership positions in the chamber. — BM, GMA News