Drilon confident he’ll keep post

DAGUPAN CITY — Senate President Franklin Drilon said yesterday he is confident of keeping his post despite claims by some quarters that he would be replaced during the chamber’s revamp tomorrow.

"I have the commitments so I will wait until we vote on Monday. But whatever it is, when I made a decision to break from the President, I had expected that (reorganization)," he told reporters here.

Drilon said there are certain swing votes that would decide who would be the next Senate president, but he was unsure who would get these votes.

Drilon declined to name the senators who are backing him to retain his post.

"But they have committed to me and they are also informed to have committed to the other side," he said.

He said, "the President (Estrada) will try to reorganize the Senate given the fact that we will have a crucial trial on impeachment, then it is natural for the President to control the Senate."

He added he has accepted his possible ouster as part of the risk of following "the dictates of my conscience."

On the prospect that Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. might become the next Senate president, Drilon said that was part of politics.

"Sometimes you’re there, sometimes you’re not. The tenure depends on the support of the majority of the senators, and in my tenure in the Senate I have been through this several times," he said.

But he has no regrets resigning from the administration coalition, the Lapian ng Masang Pilipino.

Drilon also left it to the majority leader to decide what will be first on the agenda tomorrow — the motion for reorganization or the adoption of the rules on impeachment.

The rules of impeachment will very likely be patterned after those of the US Senate, which has gone through the process twice since 1974 –for Richard Nixon in that year, and Bill Clinton in his last term.

Drilon said he has no idea how long the impeachment trial will take because it depends on the evidence to be presented by the accuser and the accused.

"The President has said that he would take the witness stand when he admitted the receipt of the P200 million; now we will issue him a subpoena so that he can appear before the Senate in person on the impeachment trial," he said.

Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson, former presidential drinking buddy, spilled the beans on the multimillion-peso jueteng payoffs since Mr. Estrada assumed office. This prompted Isabela Rep. Heherson Alvarez to file a House resolution for the impeachment of Mr. Estrada.

The resolution has now more than the required number of signatories to elevate it to the Senate for hearing.