Ejercito, Mark Villar named Senate deputy majority leaders

Senators JV Ejercito and Mark Villar on Tuesday were named Senate deputy majority leaders in the 19th Congress.

This, after senators elected the two as vice chairpersons of the Committee on Rules during the plenary session.

The lawmakers also elected the second batch of committee chairpersons for the 19th Congress. The following senators will head the committees below:

-Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies: Mark Villar
-Civil Service, Gov't Reorganization & Professional Regulation: Bong Revilla
-Cooperatives: Imee Marcos
-Economic Affairs: Grace Poe
-Electoral Reforms & People's Participation: Imee Marcos
-Environment & Natural Resources, Climate Change: Cynthia Villar
-Public Information & Mass Media: Robin Padilla
-Sports: Bong Go
-Tourism: Nancy Binay
-Urban Planning, Housing & Resettlement: JV Ejercito
-Youth: Sonny Angara

Second week into the opening of the 19th Congress, the Senate has yet to name the chairpersons of the following committees: Basic Education, Arts and Culture; Cultural Communities; Ethics and Privileges; Justice and Human Rights; Labor, Employment and Human Resource Development; and Science and Technology.

Senate majority leader Joel Villanueva said the Committee on Rules will conduct a hearing first before electing the chairpersons of some committees as there is a "clamor" among his colleagues to break the Basic Education, and Arts and Culture, as well as the Committee on Labor, Employment and Human Resource Development into four separate panels.

Villanueva also said senators have yet to finalize the list of contingents for the Commission on Appointments (CA) and the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET).

The Senate majority leader admitted that the membership in these two constitutional bodies is the "perennial problem" of the leadership during the opening of every Congress as they need to consider the political affiliations of each senator.

"The CA and the SET [memberships are] still being talked about. Remember, kasi every two senators would have one seat in the CA [and] every four [senators] would have a seat in the SET," he said.

"Ito 'yung perennial problem... perennial challenge ng leadership ng Senado every opening of Congress," he added.

"'Yun yung inaayos na numero ngayon may mga ilang personalities na sure na nakakuha,  but there are about two or three slots na lang probably that were talking about in the CA and in the SET."

Villanueva said they are expecting to finalize this in the coming days.—LDF, GMA News