{"id":102610,"date":"2017-05-16T07:19:08","date_gmt":"2017-05-16T11:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=102610"},"modified":"2017-05-16T07:19:08","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T11:19:08","slug":"cayetano-a-big-loss-to-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/05\/16\/cayetano-a-big-loss-to-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Cayetano a ‘big loss’ to Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sen.<\/a>
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano is set to face the Commission on Appointments (CA) on Wednesday for his confirmation as Foreign Affairs Secretary, some Senate leaders on Tuesday said that they will be missing their colleague\u2019s presence in the Senate. (PNA photo<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u2014Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano is set to face the Commission on Appointments (CA) on Wednesday for his confirmation as Foreign Affairs Secretary, some Senate leaders on Tuesday said that they will be missing their colleague\u2019s presence in the Senate.<\/p>\n

Senate Pres. Aquilino Pimentel III said Cayetano has already been less present in Senate plenary sessions because he is already attending international affairs preparatory to his appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has been very busy in International Affairs preparatory to his appointment so we have been missing his presence but whenever he is present in the senate he always participates in the discussion. He is going to be a big loss,\u201d Pimentel told reporters in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that he has developed an expertise in Foreign Affairs and Relations and he is chairman of the committee, we will also lose him,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Pres. Rodrigo Duterte had repeatedly stated during interviews that he would offer the Foreign Affairs post to Cayetano, his running-mate in the May 2016 elections, once the one-year appointment ban lapses.<\/p>\n

If Cayetano should be confirmed, Pimentel said that he should prioritize the development of Philippine independent foreign policy.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, echoed Pimentel, noting that any member of the Senate who leaves will be missed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, any member of the Senate who leaves is a big loss because we\u2019re only 24, unlike in the House of Representatives with over 300 members,\u201d Sotto told reporters in an interview.<\/p>\n

Sotto, meanwhile, said that the budget of Cayetano\u2019s office will be placed in the savings of the Senate while his staff members remain co-terminus.<\/p>\n

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chair of the CA Foreign Affairs Committee, said he urged Cayetano on attending his last session on Tuesday since it might be his \u201clast session day in the Senate.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said that he also jokingly told Cayetano that if he did not show up on Tuesday\u2019s session, he would not be confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Pag di ka umattend, \u2018di kita ico-confirm (If you don\u2019t attend, I won\u2019t have you confirmed),\u201d Lacson quipped.<\/p>\n

Asked if they would follow the secret voting system, Lacson said that it can be done if a CA member moves to use the process. However, if the votes are unanimous, he said that it would no longer be necessary.<\/p>\n

Lacson said so far, there have been no CA members who have signified interrogating Cayetano.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like it\u2019s okay for everyone to pass upon the confirmation. No oppositors as of now,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Cayetano said that although he has yet to be confirmed as Foreign Affairs Secretary, he is already feeling very \u201csentimental\u201d, \u201coverwhelming\u201d and \u201chumbling.\u201d<\/p>\n

“It may or may not be my last day but I feel sentimental because legislation has been my life’s work,\u201d Cayetano, who has been a legislator for almost 25 years, said.<\/p>\n

He said that he is going to miss not just the hearings but also crafting legislations.<\/p>\n

Moreover, he said that even if he did not always agree with his colleagues, he believed in their passion and sincerity to serve.<\/p>\n

“I will miss all of them. But all of them, whether opposition or not, can call me anytime because that’s my job now,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u2014Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano is set to face the Commission on Appointments (CA) on Wednesday for his confirmation as Foreign …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":102611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[3374],"class_list":["post-102610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-alan-peter-cayetano","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}