Senate starts work next week

The Senate will start work next week once the distribution of committee chairmanships is completed, Senate President Franklin Drilon said yesterday.

"We can elect and complete the reorganization of the Senate by Monday. We should be able to start work... meaning the committee hearings can start," Drilon told a press briefing after presiding a caucus of the majority bloc.

There were a few minor issues that still needed to be ironed out but they were not expected to cause any delays, Drilon said. He declined to elaborate.

All the members of the majority have given their assurance that the legislature’s reorganization will proceed smoothly and be done by Monday, Drilon said.

"There are just very few minor matters that we have to settle... but I don’t see any problem and we can organize all the committees during the session on Monday," he said. "I’m not in a position to reveal them. There are no problems which can stand in the way."

At least 21 of the 36 Senate committee chairmanships have been taken by the majority bloc, so far. Earlier, Drilon said "as a matter of principle, the majority has agreed to share the burden of the Senate work by offering the opposition chairmanships of the remaining committees."

The 15 Senate committee chairmanships that remain vacant are those of the committees on accounts; agrarian reform; banks, financial institutions and currencies; civil service and government reorganization; constitutional amendments, revision of codes and laws; cooperatives; cultural communities; energy; ethics and privileges; justice and human rights; peace, unification and reconciliation; public information and mass media; science and technology; social justice, welfare and rural development; and the youth, women and family relations.

Sen. Miriam Santiago was given the foreign relations committee after Sen. Manny Villar agreed to give way. Villar, meanwhile, has been given the committees on finance, and public order and illegal drugs.

Sen. Joker Arroyo remained chairman of the powerful Blue Ribbon committee, which investigates wrongdoing involving public officials. He was also assigned the public services committee.

The Senate is expected to give priority to administration-backed bills pushing President Arroyo’s ambitious anti-poverty agenda.

The legislature is also expected to conduct a fresh inquiry into persistent allegations of collusion between the Abu Sayyaf Islamic kidnap gang and corrupt military officers.

"We will refer it to the proper committee, and certainly that is a matter which the committee will give priority," Drilon said.