Recto to LP senators: No hard feelings

“Remember I was Minority Leader and they were majority. No hard feelings. Now I’m in the majority in the Senate, I was requested by 17 (senators). They are now in the minority, no hard feelings,” Recto told reporters in an interview
(Photo: Sen. Ralph Recto/Facebook)ralph 

MANILA –After the Senate reorganization on Monday, new Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto on Tuesday said that there is no feud between him and any of the Senators belonging to the Liberal Party (LP).

Recto, formerly Minority Leader, said that he had no problems with his colleagues in the minority or with members of the LP.

“Remember I was Minority Leader and they were majority. No hard feelings. Now I’m in the majority in the Senate, I was requested by 17 (senators). They are now in the minority, no hard feelings,” Recto told reporters in an interview.

Recto said that he had “nothing to do” with the motion of Sen. Manny Pacquiao to declare vacant a leadership post, Senate President Pro-Tempore and committee chairmanships on the Senate Committees on Health, Agriculture and Education which were chaired by LP senators.

Drilon was ousted as Senate President Pro-Tempore while Senators Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan and Aquino were ousted as chairs of the Health, Agriculture and Education committees.

Recto took Drilon’s place as Senate President Pro-Tempore after 17 out of 23 senators present voted for this change.

Senators Joseph Vicente Ejercito, Cynthia Villar, and Francis Escudero became the new chairs of the Senate Committees on Health, Agriculture and Education, respectively.

The new minority has six members namely Aquino, Drilon, Hontiveros, Pangilinan, Trillanes and Sen. Leila de Lima.

De Lima, who is currently detained in Camp Crame, manifested to join the minority bloc through a letter read by Senate Majority Vicente Sotto III.

Recto explained that the majority and minority bloc could not interfere in each other’s business.

He said that if there was a problem with the members of the majority and he were Senate President, he would have told then Senate President Pro Tempore Drilon to just resign instead of being ousted.

“If I had my way, if I were the Senate President at that time, and there was a problem with the members of the majority, I’d have told Sen. Drilon that we cannot work together so just resign. That should have been the case,” Recto said.