SP Sotto: Chairmanship of 1 or 2 Senate committees may change

Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on Monday floated the possibility of a shake-up in the chairmanship of at least one committee in the upper chamber.

Sotto told reporters this before the resumption of the session after a month-long legislative break. Before the session, members of the Senate majority bloc held a caucus. 

Asked what was discussed during the caucus, the Senate President said, “Well, madami. Una sa lahat, syempre after the break, siyempre, merong updating, may usapan, may kwentuhan.”

(Well, there were a lot. First of all, of course after the break, we updated each other and we talked about certain matters.) 

“And, pinag-usapan din namin ‘yung mga organizational meetings ng mga ibang committee. Nabanggit ‘yung Committee on Ethics at ‘yung mga ibang pang-committee na pinag-iisipan namin. Kasi, there might be one or two committees na baka magbago ng chairmanship. So, nag-uusap-usap muna kami, ‘yung mga members of the majority,” he added. 

(We also talked about the organizational meetings of the other committees. The Committee on Ethics was mentioned and the other committees that we are looking at. Because there might be one or two committees that might change the chairmanship. So, we talked about it first among members of the majority.) 

Sotto, however, refused to identify which committees will change chairpersons. 

“'l’ll let you know tomorrow. Nothing concrete at this point. Pinagusapan lang. Ayoko munang sabihin kung ano anong committee ‘yun dahil baka magkaroon ng… Hindi pa alam ng iba, mabuting alam na nila,” he said. 

(l'll let you know tomorrow. There’s nothing concrete at this point. We just talked about it. I don't want to name these committees because there might be a conflict. Others don't know it yet, so it's better if they know it first.) 

A lawyer earlier filed an ethics complaint against Senate Deputy Majority Leader JV Ejercito for gross neglect of constitutional duty, allegedly for sitting on the complaint against Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero in connection with the P30-million campaign donation he received in 2022 from a contractor.

Ejercito is the chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges. 

He, however, maintained that the ethics committee cannot hold hearings yet as it has not been constituted for its members have yet to be formally manifested and approved on the floor. —LDF, GMA Integrated News