Senate ethics panel prepares for Binay, Cayetano mediation

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate ethics committee has approved its rules to allow for conciliation talks between rivals Senators Nancy Binay and Alan Peter Cayetano.

Senate majority leader Francis Tolentino, who chairs the ethics panel, said the panel convened its members yesterday to tackle the rules on reconciling senators in case of conflict.

“Before we tackle the complaint, we will meet the two and try to mediate to reach an amicable settlement,” Tolentino said in an ambush interview yesterday after the committee meeting.

The conciliation will be done behind closed doors but the results of the meeting will be made public, Tolentino said.

Tolentino said he is hopeful the two bickering senators – who are also political rivals in their home turfs Makati and Taguig – would resolve their differences.

“These are outbursts. There are things that probably can be said due to passion and the emotional combustion, which can probably be clarified in a more friendly atmosphere,” Tolentino said.

Binay said she is open to having mediation talks with her rival. Cayetano, meanwhile, had apologized for his behavior at the next hearing, but his apology was not addressed to Binay.

Binay slapped Cayetano with an ethics complaint after the two traded barbs during the Senate accounts committee review of the New Senate Building, with Binay denying Cayetano’s estimate of the ballooning construction cost and Cayetano retaliating by calling Binay a crazed “Marites” or rumormonger.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said yesterday that Senate President Francis Escudero should have a peaceful time to achieve his goals, four days before the resumption of the third regular session of the 19th Congress.