Cayetano halts announcement of CA members

Senate Minority Floor Leader Alan Peter Cayetano on Wednesday blocked the move to announce the new members of the Commission on Appointments (CA), saying that the minority objects to its composition. The list of twelve senators nominated into the CA was supposed to be announced during the Senate's Wednesday session. However, Cayetano took the floor and said that the CA composition was disadvantageous to the minority, forcing the Senate to defer the announcement until the issue is settled. "Bakit pa ako naging minority leader kung hindi ko ipagtatanggol ang minority (Why else would I be the minority leader if I don't defend the minority)," said Cayetano during his speech. Based on current political alignments, the Senate minority is headed by Cayetano and its only members are Senators Pia Cayetano and Joker Arroyo. The rest of the senators are with the majority. Explaining his move, the minority leader said the Senate agreed to draw up the CA’s composition using groupings instead of party affiliations as mandated by law. "Groupings are tolerated and allowed if there is a consensus," he said. Since there are 24 senatorial seats and 12 slots for CA membership, groups get seats half of their number. Under this arrangement, Cayetano’s group — composed of the seven senators from different parties — was supposed to get 3.5 seats. Cayetano, however, said that only three seats instead of four were given to their group. "You cannot claim that there is a fraction," he said. He said that since two of the seats would already presumably go to Senators Manuel Villar and Miriam Defensor-Santiago, he and Arroyo would be forced to only choose one of them to represent the minority in the CA. On the other hand, Senate Majority Floor Leader Vicente "Tito" Sotto III said that the majority has already agreed who the other nine CA members would be. This includes, aside from himself, Senators Franklin Drilon, Ralph Recto, Francis Escudero, Serge Osmeña, Gregorio Honasan, Jinggoy Estrada, Edgardo Angara, and Ramon Bong Revilla. Sotto advised Cayetano to first discuss the issue with his groupmates, and dismissed the idea of bringing the matter to the Supreme Court. "The problems of the Senate should be resolved by the Senate," he said. The CA is composed of the Senate president as its head and 12 senators and 12 congressmen as its members. The Constitution gives the commission the duty of confirming all appointments made by the President of the Philippines, except those of the Ombudsman and Supreme Court Justices. The CA discusses and deliberates on nominations at the standing committee level and at the plenary session. Nominations or appointments may end up being confirmed, rejected or by-passed.—JV, GMANews.TV