The Senate’s most powerful investigative body has a new leader. Senator Pia Cayetano was formally named chair of the blue ribbon committee during Wednesday’s plenary session, a development announced on May 20 as part of the broader reorganization of Senate committee chairmanships following the leadership coup that installed her brother, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, as Senate president.
The committee shuffle was set in motion by the May 11 ouster of Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, who lost the Senate presidency after Alan Peter Cayetano and his allies — including Ronald dela Rosa, who returned to the Senate after a six-month absence, and swing-vote senators Pia Cayetano, Loren Legarda, Camille Villar, and Mark Villar — secured 13 votes.
The blue ribbon committee has been at the center of one of the Senate’s most politically charged inquiries in recent years. The panel has been investigating corruption in flood control projects — a probe that triggered coup rumors against successive Senate presidents. Lacson, who spearheaded that investigation, had a turbulent stint leading the committee. He was forced to step down as panel chair in October 2025 after senators from different blocs criticized his handling of the probe, before returning to the post on November 11, 2025. Even upon his return, he struggled to gather enough signatures to formally file and sponsor the committee’s partial report in plenary.
Lacson’s final report before the shakeup contained a recommendation to conduct further investigation into the alleged involvement of some fellow senators in the flood control fund controversy.
Pia Cayetano is no stranger to the chairmanship. She previously led the blue ribbon committee from January 2024 to June 2025, and her legal background has long been cited as an advantage in managing the technically complex hearings the panel handles.
There are 41 Senate committees to be distributed between the new majority and minority blocs. Sen. Bam Aquino, now in the minority after Sotto’s removal, lost the chairmanship of the basic education panel. The full extent of the post-coup committee realignment is still being finalized.
