THE Senate on Tuesday elected the heads of its various committees starting with the finance body, which will be headed by Senator Juan Edgardo M. Angara.

Senator Pia S. Cayetano will head the ways and means committee, while Senator Imee R. Marcos was given the economic affairs committee.

Senator Aquilino L. Pimentel III was given the foreign relations committee, while Senator Panfilo M. Lacson got national defense.

Neophyte Senators Ronald M. Dela Rosa, Christopher Lawrence T. Go, and Francis N. Tolentino will head the committees on public order and dangerous drugs, health and demography, and local government respectively.

Returning Senator Ramon B. Revilla, Jr. will head the public information committee.

Meanwhile, Senators Grace S. Poe-Llamanzares, Richard J. Gordon, and Emmanuel Joel J. Villanueva retained their seats as heads of the committees on public services, blue ribbon, and labor.

Likewise, Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian will continue as energy committee chairman, while Senator Maria Lourdes Nancy S. Binay still has the tourism committee. Senator Cynthia A. Villar retained he agriculture committee, while Senator Emmanuel D. Pacquiao again got public works.

Minority Senator Risa N. Hontiveros-Baraquel will keep her post as head of the committee on women, children. Detained Senator Leila M. de Lima will continue as head of the social justice committee, while Senator Francis N. Pangilinan will head the constitutional amendments committee.

At the House of Representatives, Manila Rep. Bienvenido M. Abante Jr. was voted as minority leader after losing the speakership to Taguig Rep. Alan Peter S. Cayetano.

“We do not want to be disruptive,” Mr. Abante said. “I want the minority to be the glass so other public officials can look at themselves and let the glass tell them what is wrong,” he added.

The following were elected deputy majority floor leaders: Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel Macapagal Arroyo, Batangas Rep. Lianda B. Bolilia, Manila Rep. Amanda Christina L. Bagatsing, Pampanga Rep. Juan Pablo Bondoc and Pangasinan Rep. Christopher de Venecia. — Charmaine A. Tadalan and Vince Angelo C. Ferreras

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