The Senate on Monday formally elected vice chairpersons and members across multiple standing committees, completing the reorganization of the chamber’s committee structure under the leadership of Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano.
The Blue Ribbon Committee — chaired by Senator Pia Cayetano and formally known as the Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations — now has its full complement. Senators Rodante Marcoleta and Jinggoy Estrada were named vice chairpersons, while Senators Bong Go, Robin Padilla, Camille Villar, Mark Villar, Chiz Escudero, and Imee Marcos were elected as members.
Several of those named to the panel — including Estrada, Escudero, Mark Villar, and Go — have previously been implicated in the flood control corruption controversy that the Blue Ribbon Committee has been tasked to investigate.
Beyond the Blue Ribbon panel, Senator Marcoleta also picked up the vice chairpersonship of the Energy Committee, which counts Senators Go, Padilla, Estrada, Marcos, and Joel Villanueva among its members.
The Finance Committee and the Committee on National Defense and Security, Peace, Unification and Reconciliation were constituted with all senators as members, except the Senate President and those serving in an ex-officio capacity — a standard arrangement for the chamber’s two most broad-based panels.
The Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Pia Cayetano, drew in seven majority members: Senators Go, Escudero, Estrada, Marcoleta, Marcos, Camille Villar, and Villanueva — giving the panel a heavily majority-aligned composition as the Senate heads into a critical legislative stretch.
Senator Camille Villar was designated vice chairperson of the Committee on Sustainable Development Goals, Innovation and Futures Thinking, with Senators Mark Villar, Padilla, and Villanueva rounding out its membership. The siblings Camille and Mark Villar also both landed seats on the Youth Committee alongside Estrada.
Cayetano assumed the Blue Ribbon chairmanship on May 20, replacing Senator Panfilo Lacson following the May 11 Senate coup that ousted then-Senate president Vicente Sotto III. The Senate President had earlier disclosed that both his sister and Marcoleta were being weighed for the Blue Ribbon post before Pia Cayetano was ultimately confirmed to the role.
