Most senators expected to keep committees

Unlike in the House of Representatives where there is an intense and a bitter fight for committee chairmanships, most senators are expected to keep their committees.

Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. will continue to chair the finance committee, the panel that scrutinizes the annual budget, and the foreign relations committee, which he inherited from the late senator and Foreign Affairs Secretary Blas Ople.

Sen. Ralph Recto chairs the ways and means committee, which wields the power of life and death over President Arroyo’s tax proposals.

Like many senators, Recto is for improving the efficiency of revenue collecting agencies before any new tax bills are considered.

Sen. Joker Arroyo heads the powerful Blue Ribbon Committee and the committee on legislative franchises. It was the Blue Ribbon panel that investigated the Jose Pidal expose of opposition Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. chairs the agriculture committee, while Majority Leader Francisco Pangilinan heads the justice committee.

Opposition members are also expected to keep their committees. Among them are Sen. Serge Osmeña, who chairs the committee on banks and financial institutions, and Sen. Edgardo Angara, who heads the committee on constitutional amendments.

Angara will carry the ball in the Senate for the proponents of Charter change. He supports the initiative to rewrite the Constitution.

Before the last election campaign started in February, Osmeña launched a separate investigation into the Jose Pidal controversy but the probe was overtaken by the May presidential polls.