ASIDE from 12 incumbent senators, the Philippine Senate has 6 new lawmakers in the 16th Congress, who assumed their office today, July 1, 2013 while 5 solons has ended their term last Sunday, June 30, 2013.
The newbie lawmakers are Senators Grace Poe Llamanzares, Maria Lourdes “Nancy” Binay, Juan Edgardo Angara, Paulo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, Cynthia A. Villar, and Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito-Estrada.
Those who are re-elected for another 6-year term, whose first term ended last Sunday, are incumbent Senators Loren Legarda, Francis “Chiz” Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Antonio Trillanes IV and Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan.
The outgoing legislator whose term ended last Sunday are Senators Edgardo Angara, Joker Arroyo, Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, Panfilo Lacson and Manuel “Manny” B. Villar.
And those with remaining three years in their term which ends in June 30, 2016 are Senators Pia Cayetano, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Franklin Drilon, Teofisto Guingona III, Manuel “Lito” Lapid, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., Sergio R. Osmena III, Ralph G. Recto, Ramon “Bong” Revilla, resigned majority leader Vicente C. Sotto III, acting Senate President Jinggoy Estrada and former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.
6 newbie lawmakers
The six new senators are familiar since their surnames catapulted them to power.
Poe, (born September 3, 1968) who is the daughter of former King of Philippine action movies Fernando Poe Jr., who was defeated by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004 presidential elections. Most political analysts believed that Poe top the latest polls, who garnered 20,337,327 votes was a vindication for cheating her father in 2004.
She is set to file her first four priority bills on her first day in office. She was born in Iloilo City. Her biological parents are unknown, as she was found abandoned as a baby at the Jaro Metropolitan Cathedral, the main church of the city, by a woman named Chayong, also known as Sayong.
When the infant was discovered, the parish priest named her “Grace”, because the priest believed that her discovery was through the grace of God. Although the church issued an announcement in the hopes that her biological mother would claim her, no one did so, and she was taken in by Chayong and her family.[4] Later on, she was passed on to Tessie Valencia, the unmarried daughter of a wealthy landowner from Bacolod, Negros Occidental who was friends with Chayong.
Valencia was also friends with Fernando Poe, Jr. and Jesusa Sonora (Susan Roces), who were newly married at the time. In particular, Valencia was a big fan of Roces, and she frequently made trips between Bacolod and Manila in order to visit her, bringing the baby along. The couple took her in thereafter after Valencia decided that the baby would be better off growing up with a full set of parents in the Philippines rather than raising her as a single parent in the United States, where she was moving to. Chayong originally was hesitant letting Poe and Roces adopt the baby because she was not familiar with them, having entrusted the baby to Valencia, but was convinced by Jaime Sin, then serving as Archbishop of Jaro, to let the couple adopt her. Poe was later legally adopted by the couple after further efforts to search for her biological parents failed, and attended Saint Paul College Makati for her elementary education.
Binay, (born May 12, 1973) who got 16, 812,148 votes, is the daughter of Vice President Jejomar Binay. During the campaign period, she was criticized by the netizens that she is afraid of a live debates but those criticism only put her into the 5th place.
She vowed to give priority on bills for the benefits of women, youth and family, as her campaign slogan, “Nanay Nyo sa Senado.” She intended to handle the committee on tourism which is presently chaired by Lapid.
Last Wednesday, she made a courtesy call to Acting Senate President Estrada and took a tour inside the chamber including her new office at the fifth floor.
Aquino, (born May 7, 1977) who gained15,534,465 votes and placed 7th in ranking, is the fourth Benigno who was elected in Philippine legislative history. There were three other senators named Benigno Aquino - his grandfather Benigno Aquino, Sr., who served in the Eighth Legislature (1925-193); his Uncle Ninoy or Benigno Aquino, Jr., who served in the Sixth and Seventh congresses (1967-1973); and cousin President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, who served in the 14th Congress (2007-2010).
Angara (born July 15, 1972) most widely known as Sonny, is an advocate of educational reform. He served as representative of the lone district of Aurora from 2004 to 2013. He is the son of outgoing Senator Edgardo Angara.
He was first elected to public office in 2004 as the representative to Congress for the lone district of Aurora, where he succeeded his aunt, Bellaflor J. Angara-Castillo, a three-term representative and erstwhile governor of Aurora. Elected at age 31, he was one of the youngest members of the 13th Congress. He was a member of the House minority and served as House deputy minority leader, thereby becoming an ex-officio member of all standing and special committees of the 13th Congress.
He was one of the remaining congressmen who offered aid to some of the wounded persons and personally brought some of the survivors to the nearby Far Eastern Hospital along Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City for treatment when a bomb was planted by still unknown suspects at the premises of the House of Representatives in 2008 which resulted in the death of Congressman Wahab Akbar and the death and serious wounding of other congressmen and congressional staffers.
He was elected to a third term as congressman for Aurora in May 2010. He was one of the signatories of the impeachment complaint against then Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Villar (born July 29, 1950) placed 10th in the senatorial ranking with13,822, 854 votes, was the wife of outgoing senator Villar and three termer representative of Las Pinas City. In 2001, Villar ran as Representative of the Lone District of Las Piñas and won in a landslide victory. She served in that post until 2010.
Her poor ranking can be attributed to her harsh remarks on Filipino nurses in a senatorial forum on GMA News TV on February 23, 2013, when economist Solita Monsod asked Villar to explain why, as chairman of the House Committee on High Education, she opposed the move to close nursing schools that the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) said did not meet minimum requirements to continue operations.
She explained that she favored the students who wanted to continue their schooling. CHED, she said, wanted to close the nursing schools because they didn’t have the required tertiary hospitals where the nurses would eventually be trained before they graduate and get their BS Nursing degrees.
This part of Villar’s response became controversial: “Actually, hindi naman kailangan ng nurse na matapos ang BSN (BS Nursing). Kasi itong mga nurses, gusto lang nilang maging room nurse, o sa Amerika o sa other countries, ay mag-aalaga lang sila. Hindi naman kailangan na ganoon sila kagaling. (Nurses don’t actually need to finish BS Nursing. These nurses only want to become a room nurse or caregivers in America or in other countries. They don’t need to be that good.),” Villar said in response.
Villar apologized on March 4, 2013 to Filipino nurses who were hurt by her recent statement on the nursing profession.
“Taos-puso po akong humihingi ng paumanhin sa lahat ng mga nurse at kani-kanilang pamilya na labis na nasaktan sa aking kasagutan sa tanong na ibinato sa akin sa isang programa sa TV (I sincerely apologize to all the nurses and their families who were hurt by my response to the question I was asked on TV),” she posted on her Twitter account.
Ejercito-Estrada, (born on December 26, 1969 in Manila) who ranked 11th in the May polls was the half-brother of Jinggoy, and the son of Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada to Guia Gomez, who is re-elected chief executive of the City of San Juan. He is former representative of the said city.
He attended Xavier School for his secondary education and completed his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at De La Salle University. Ejercito served as mayor of San Juan City for three consecutive terms from 2001 to 2010. During the 2010 elections, Ejercito ran for the position of congressman for the lone district of San Juan.
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