Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri announced on Monday the designation of Senator Pia Cayetano as the new chairperson of the upper chamber’s Blue Ribbon Committee. 

Zubiri made the official announcement during the resumption of the Senate plenary session after Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III made his quick message congratulating Cayetano

“The minority applauds the decision of the majority Mr. President and we congratulate our first-ever female chairperson of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee,” Pimentel said. 

In response, Zubiri said Cayetano is the first female lawmaker to hold the post as the chairperson of the upper chamber’s committee on accountability of public officers and investigations.

“Actually, it’s a fact that Sen. Pia Cayetano, our distinguished colleague, will be the first female chairperson of the Blue Ribbon Committee of the Senate... The Senate has been in existence for 106th years providing the checks and balances in a bicameral system,” Zubiri said. 

“She is the duly elected chairperson," he added.

In mid-December last year, Senator Francis Tolentino confirmed his resignation as Blue Ribbon Committee chairman, clarifying that his move was an act to honor the agreement with the Senate leadership when he assumed the post in August 2022.

“In fulfillment of a sacred commitment to serve as Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman and Member of the Commission on Appointments for a concise term of one and a half years, I find it both a duty and an honor to uphold the essence of a prior agreement,” he said. 

Tolentino added that his “decision is rooted in a deep-seated belief that public office demands fidelity to pledges made.”