Drilon's Scam Exposed

The bitterest reaction to the dismissal of Liberal Party senators from the committee chairmanships they held had to come from erstwhile Senate president pro tempore Franklin Drilon. Drilon admitted that while the majority had the numbers to remove them from their juicy, powerful posts, he pointed out that the LPs had contributed six votes to install Aquilino Pimentel III as head of the chamber.

Drilon is right to accuse Pimentel of being an ingrate who, in seeking to gather up the most number of allies in a traditionally independent Senate, needed the LPs to join Pimentel in that ill-fated “supermajority” that made him Senate president. But Drilon is mistaken in suggesting that the six LP votes were really necessary for control of the chamber — or that the LPs’ brand of chameleon-like collaboration was even good for the Senate, in the long run.

In the end, the Senate majority (yes, the regular kind, not the super-sized one) agreed that if their colleagues across the political aisle are going to act like the enemy, then they shouldn’t enjoy the perks that go with being allies. It’s really that simple.

But give Drilon and his fellow Yellows some credit for dreaming up this unique majority-but-still-minority solution to secure power and pelf beyond the LP’s shelf life as the affiliation in control of the Senate. It was untenable from the very beginning — and when push came to shove in the chamber as far as its legislative and oversight agenda was concerned, the ax had to fall on this misbegotten marriage of political convenience.

The tipping point, I’m told, was the caucus held recently by the Senate to determine what to do with retired SPO3 Arthur Lascañas. The decision was finally made during that fateful meeting to restart the hearings where Lascañas had basically cleared President Rodrigo Duterte of any involvement with the supposed Davao Death Squad, in order to allow the ex-cop to disavow his earlier testimony.

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