MANILA, Philippines – They may have hurdled the senatorial race but a bigger battle lies ahead for newly-elected Senators Leila De Lima, Joel Villanueva, Manny Pacquiao, Risa Hontiveros, and Sherwin Gatchalian.

Much has yet to be proven and done. This fact is not lost on the first-time senators as they enter the 17th Congress on Monday, July 25.

The senators and their staff are on a roll building their teams, managing their offices, filing bills, and getting familiar with the inner workings of their new home, the Senate.

Most of the 5 new senators are lucky as they are not entirely new to lawmaking, as they had served as district and party-list representatives.

Gatchalian is a former Valenzuela representative, Hontiveros a former Akbayan representative, Villanueva a 3-termer CIBAC representative, and Pacquiao a former Sarangani representative. Pacquiao, however, had the most number of absences in the House of Representatives, primarily due to his boxing fights.

Of the 5, only De Lima had no official legislative background, although she is a lawyer by profession. A former Human Rights Commissioner, De Lima was served as justice secretary of the previous administration.

Leila De Lima

De Lima, a first time legislator, admitted she still has to familiarize herself with Senate processes. 

“Right now, we’re in the process of organizing our office staff, recruiting new staff, familiarizing ourselves with the administrative inner workings of the Senate. We have yet to move into my assigned office as the previous occupant/s have yet to fully vacate said office,” De Lima told Rappler in a text message.

De Lima failed to attend the orientation for new senators due to a conflict in schedule. She, however, said she had a one-on-one briefing from a Senate official.

Now, the senator said she and her team are conducting focused group discussions on her legislative agenda and talking to experts on key national issues.

“We started drafting bills and holding briefing sessions with experts on certain subject matters like federalism,” she said.

De Lima added: “I’ve instructed my staff to collate available literature and materials on those matters (Charter change).”

In her first week as senator, De Lima filed her first set of bills, focused mainly on justice, corruption, and human rights.

She filed Senate Bills (SB) No. 195 or the Anti-Criminal Exploitation of Children Act of 2016; SB 196 or the Bank Secrecy Law Amendments; and SB 197 or the Libel Law Reform Act of 2016.

A known opponent of the restoration of the death penalty, a key agenda of President Rodrigo Duterte, De Lima said she would work hard to push for her cause.

“As to death penalty, then and now, I’m against it. Will come up with the most persuasive arguments, backed up with relevant data/statistics, in opposing the legislative moves to restore death penalty in our statute books,” she said.

Joel Villanueva

Having experience in both legislative and executive departments, Villanueva said he is currently reviewing bills filed to determine which ones “deserve” to be re-filed.

His first 10 bills, he said, will mainly revolve around job creation and the improvement of the education system – something similar to his activities as head of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

“Right now, we are reaching out to various groups/sectors to check on their concerns. We are reviewing bills that have been filed to see which ones deserve another chance at legislation. We are also doing our own research on new bills we will introduce,” Villanueva said.

Villanueva has yet to complete his Senate staff, as he still has to sort through hundreds of applications, mostly from his campaign volunteers.

“The team is almost complete. you could just imagine the number of applicants considering that I had the most volunteers in the last campaign,” he said in a mix of Filipino and English.

Villanueva was among the 3 newbie senators who attended the Senate orientation on Monday, June 27. In a Twitter post, Villanueva shared his excitement as he starts his biggest role yet in government.

Sherwin Gatchalian

Gatchalian, for his part, expects his transition to the Senate to be easier, having come from the House of Representatives. He said he and his staff are “ready” to work.

He has the team and experience, Gatchalian said, to immediately move forward.

“Since I came from HOR, the transition is easier. I already have experience and the team to function immediately. All I need is beef up my team to increase our output since this is nationwide already,” Gatchalian told Rappler in a text message.

In fact, he said he has already filed his first 10 bills, mainly on youth empowerment and education reform, one of his campaign promises.

“Since I have experience in managing organizations in the private and public sector, I delegate responsibilities and use technology to communicate constantly with my peers. I want all of my team members to be on the ball,” he added.

One of Gatchalian’s communications strategists, Aureli Sinsuat, said he and other colleagues are thoroughly studying the policies and legislations concerning their boss’ advocacies in preparation for the 17th Congress.

“Main preparation is fully understanding our policy and legislative agenda. That means going over the education plan, as well as reading up on other key agenda like MSMEs development and energy policy,” Sinsuat said.

Fortunately, most of the staff members have legislative experience in either houses of Congress, he said.

“Mix of new and old, but the majority are carryovers from the congressional office and campaign team. Most of the new hires have legislative experience in either House or Senate.”

Despite all the preparations, the team knows it won’t be a walk in the park. It expects scrutiny from the public, as their boss is a freshman senator.

“Well, as a new senator, Win will have a lot of eyes on him definitely, which means that we all have to deliver for him. But we’re confident that we can produce because he’s provided a clear vision for what he wants to achieve, and he’s a very hands-on leader,” Sinsuat said.

Risa Hontiveros

It took her 3 tries before finally winning that elusive Senate seat. Now, Hontiveros is all set for her biggest challenge yet.

Like other new senators, Hontiveros is busy organizing her office team. Her main criteria for her staff? Competence and shared values, she said.

“Right now, am in the process of completing my team. Want to ensure that my team not only is competent, but also share values and advocacies important to me.”

In preparation for the 17th Congress, Hontiveros said she is reviewing parliamentary procedures, as it has been 6 years since she was part of Congress.

“I’m also reviewing parliamentary skills. Hindi naman bago sa akin pero dapat balikan kasi matagal din akong wala sa legislature (This is not new to me but I still have to review because I’ve been out of the legislature for a while),” Hontiveros told Rappler.

Aside from this, she said she is working on her legislative agenda mainly focused on health and the basic services sector, which she labeled as a “health package for women and children.” Hontiveros ran under the platform of universal healthcare in the recent polls.

The bills she filed include the strengthening of the Anti-Hospital Deposit Law, extension of maternity leave from 60 calendar days to 120, and the Bibong Barangay Health Workers Bill which seeks to increase compensation and training for barangay health workers or BHWs.

Manny Pacquiao

While it was easy for the world-famous boxing star to secure a Senate seat, the same thing could not be said of his journey ahead.

He himself may have known this well, prompting him to enroll in a 9-day course on governance, where experts talked about their respective sectors and the needs they want to be addressed.

Despite the pressures, Pacquiao said he is ready for the 17th Congress. For him, his “common sense” would be his weapon as he begins to walk the hallowed halls of the chamber.

“Ready naman ako. Common sense lang naman ‘yan eh. Hindi ‘yung pagalingan sa pagbara, pagalingan sa utak; kailangan common sense na may laman yung sasabihin mo, di yung puro papogi lang sa camera,” Pacquiao said.

(I am ready. It’s just all about common sense. It’s not about being better at debating, being more intelligent; you need to have common sense so your statements will be sensible. It’s not just all about looking good in front of the cameras.)

On Monday, July 4, Pacquiao went to the Senate to orient himself with the building, the staff, and some members of the media.

Pacquiao is also banking on his staff, most of whom were with him in the House of Representatives.

The senator’s staff told Rappler how members of the team study issues and legislation. Thankfully, the staff said, they also have a veteran at the helm of the legislative division.

Pacquiao’s chief of staff, Krista Mercado, studied at Harvard University, upon the approval of the senator. Pacquiao, they said, is supportive of his team’s education.

The senator is confident that he would be able to study and take the Constitution to heart, and likened the process to memorizing the Holy Bible. 

“Magagaling naman yung team ko. Alam natin yan, binabasa natin, mine-memorize natin yung Constitution. So parang noong araw, wala kong alam sa Bible, nung araw di ko alam paano sumunod sa tama. Pero nung nagstart ako magbasa ng Bible, anytime I can preach the word of God, ma-share ko kahalagahan sa buhay, relationship natin sa Panginoon, mga verses nating matutunan, ganun din ‘yan, same thing with the Constitution na minememorize natin at binabasa natin,” he said.

(My team members are good. We know that, we read it, we memorize the Constitution. So like before, I didn’t know anything about the Bible; before, I didn’t know how to follow the right path. But when I started reading the Bible, anytime I can preach the word of God, share its importance to our life, our relationship with the Lord, the verses we need to learn….It’s the same thing with the Constitution that I am memorizing and reading.) 

Pacquio has already filed his first set of bills, mainly focusing on the reimposition of the death penalty and development of sports in the country. Now, his staff is preparing for the second round of filing, they said. – Rappler.com