A dispute over unfilled committee posts turned personal on the Senate floor Tuesday when Senator Raffy Tulfo pressed the minority to formalize its committee assignments and Senator Pia Cayetano rose to shield her brother from the accusation.
Tulfo, who leads both the Committee on Public Services and the Committee on Migrant Workers, said the two panels could not move on assigned measures because minority senators had not been cleared to take their seats. He laid the delay at the feet of Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, telling colleagues that the holdup was stalling legislation flagged as priorities under the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council. Among the measures he cited were the proposed Department of Water, franchise bills, and legislation on reintegrating overseas Filipino workers, according to reporting by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
“What disturbs me is that it is the inaction of the Minority Floor Leader to confirm these memberships that holds important [Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council] (LEDAC) bills hostage, such as the Department of Water, crucial franchise bills, and the OFW reintegration bills,” Tulfo said.
He also recounted that his staff had repeatedly gone to the offices of minority members but could not get a commitment, pointing to what he described as a lack of go-signal from the minority leadership. Alan Cayetano was not present for the session. The Filipino Times reported that Tulfo needled the absent minority leader over his availability, remarking that time spent on Facebook Live could instead be used to sign off on the appointments.
Pia Cayetano stood to answer, rejecting the framing that anything was being held hostage and telling Tulfo he could have simply approached her if he wanted a message relayed.
“Senator Tulfo, madali n’yo naman ho akong tanungin. Alam n’yo namang kapatid ko si Alan kung gusto n’yong makarating. Huwag na ho kayong magdrama ng pa-hostage-hostage, hindi ho tayo ganito dito… Wala ho akong naalalang ganoon mag-salita dito sa Senate for the 19 years that I have been senator,” she said.
Tulfo pushed back on the suggestion that he was being theatrical, insisting his record showed otherwise and challenging his colleague to look inward before leveling the charge.
“Ubusin ko muna ‘yung tawa ko. Never po ako nagdrama dito. Simula noong ako’y maging senador, never ever po akong nagdrama rito. Halughugin n’yo po ‘yung mga posts sa social media, never n’yo akong nakita magdrama o ginamit ‘to para mag-grandstanding… Sino ang nagda-drama? Tumingin muna kayo sa salamin bago kayo magsalita,” he said.
Tulfo told the chamber he had spent recent weeks working with Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri on electing senators into the vacant slots on both panels. The Inquirer said it reached out to Alan Cayetano for his side but had not received a reply as of its posting.
The friction traces back to a Senate shake-up earlier in the year that reshuffled committee leadership and stripped several senators, Tulfo among them, of chairmanships before later assignments restored him to the public services and migrant workers panels.
