The fight over who really controls the Senate blue ribbon committee is far from over.

The bloc of deposed Senate president Alan Peter Cayetano is supposed to stage yet another “blue ribbon committee hearing” on Tuesday, June 16.

Former congressman Mike Defensor, who has no business with the upper chamber, announced on Facebook on Sunday, June 14, that the hearing would be held at Double Gem Edsa Garden Events Place — outside the Senate, where committee hearings are typically conducted.

“The blue ribbon committee hearing will proceed,” Defensor wrote.

He called on the public to support the “Brave 18,” referring to the 18 alleged former security aides of ex-Ako Bicol representative Zaldy Co, along with 14 others who are expected to testify on alleged corruption in government.

The group claimed they delivered kickback money to several personalities, although Senator Raffy Tulfo has questioned the credibility of their claims. Defensor also urged the public to back the senators aligned with the Cayetano bloc.

Rappler messaged the offices of Cayetano and Senator Rodante Marcoleta to ask whether the scheduled hearing is sanctioned by their bloc, but no response has been received as of writing. This story will be updated once replies are received.

Marcoleta was the designated blue ribbon sub-committee chairperson for the flood control probe of the Cayetano bloc. 

This is not the first time the Cayetano bloc will stage a “hearing.” On June 4, allies of the Cayetano bloc pushed through with what they called a blue ribbon committee hearing. The Senate majority bloc, however, dismissed it as a “bogus hearing” with no basis whatsoever in Senate rules, calendar, or authority. (READ: Cayetanos’ contested Senate hearing gives ‘ex-Marines’ platform to attack enemies)

That was followed by a blue ribbon committee consultative meeting led by chairperson Senator Erwin Tulfo on Monday, June 8. The 18 alleged security aides were invited, but they didn’t show up. Instead, they went to the office of Senator Robin Padilla to seek refuge and hold their own press conference. 

‘Unauthorized’

Senator Erwin Tulfo, however, made it clear there is no hearing scheduled for Tuesday, June 16.

“The Committee wishes to clarify that the recent announcements made by former congressman Mike Defensor regarding an alleged hearing on said date were made without the authority and approval of the Committee,” Tulfo said in a statement on Monday, June 15.

The supposed June 16 hearing is “illegitimate,” according to him, because it ignores Senate rules requiring a formal three-day notice and distribution of the agenda before a hearing. Tulfo also stressed that Defensor is “neither a member of the Senate, nor the blue ribbon committee.”

“He is not privy to the official investigations of this body. He possesses no legal standing to announce any proceeding on behalf of the Senate,” Tulfo said.

“The blue ribbon committee will not permit its name and institutional integrity to be misrepresented or utilized for unauthorized disclosures,” Tulfo said. But what exactly can he do when someone like Defensor, who is no senator, plays pretend?

If you think about it, if the Cayetano bloc believes it has the upperhand, why isn’t it holding the session within the upper chamber’s premises? Why need to rent out an event’s place along EDSA?

Despite lapses in the previous statements of the 18 ex-security aides, the Cayetano bloc has so much trust in them — that this group will expose multi-billion infrastructure corruption.

National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag, however, said he received information that Defensor allegedly offered these individuals P5 million each — quite a hefty sum — to testify on the supposed flood control corruption. The former congressman dismissed this as “double hearsay.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Win Gatchalian also dismissed the Tuesday hearing, saying: “The Senate recognizes only one blue ribbon committee, the one headed by Senator Erwin Tulfo. Any hearing or investigation conducted outside of this committee has no legal standing, carries no institutional authority, and will not be recognized by the Senate.”

The supposed two blue ribbon committees come amid the dispute in the Senate leadership. 

Cayetano continues to insist that he remains Senate president, despite the leadership shake-up that removed him from the post and installed Gatchalian as acting Senate president.

A closer look at the Cayetano bloc’s earlier “hearing” also raised questions over its legitimacy, as it was not formally recognized by the committee secretariat and was not attended by blue ribbon committee staff.

As Tulfo put it in his previous statement, the Cayetano bloc’s so-called blue ribbon committee hearing was nothing more than a “press conference.” – Rappler.com