Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said Monday, October 11, that he is open to amending the Senate's rules to grant journalist Maria Ressa the chamber's Medal of Excellence for winning this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

"I personally believe that any Filipino who is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize should get the Senate Medal of Excellence. And Maria Ressa’s win is especially remarkable and worth celebrating for being the first Nobel Peace Prize awarded to a Filipino," said Zubiri, who chairs the Senate Committee on Rules.

"But the Senate Medal of Excellence is an institutional recognition, so the whole Senate body has to be in agreement, as worded in the approved resolution creating the award," he, however, noted.

Some senators, particularly allies of President Duterte, do not agree to conferring Ressa with the Senate's highest recognition despite the journalist bagging the Philippines' first-ever Nobel prize for fighting for freedom of expression and of the press.

Sen. Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa, who led the Duterte administration's bloody war on drugs that has been a subject of Ressa and her news organization's critical reporting, said the Norweigan Nobel Committee was "mistaken" for giving Ressa the award.

Sen. Francis Tolentino, who was also one of those who orginally pushed for the creation of the Senate Medal of Excellence Award, has yet to respond to media queries about the proposed grant of the award to Ressa.

But earlier, he said the Senate Medal of Excellence is automatically conferred to recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, Pulitzer Prize, the AM Turing Award, the Ramon Magsaysay Award, and Olympic medals.

This was also Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon's position Monday, saying Ressa qualifies for the Senate award.

Still, Zubiri recalled Drilon saying during their discussions that the Senate Medal of Excellence will be awarded "upon the Unanimous vote of the Members of the Chamber.”

"Reading the transcripts of our records that day, even the Senate President agreed with Sen. Drilon that it should be a unanimous vote and not just unanimous consent," the Senate leader said.

Zubiri said: "If my colleagues wish, we can amend our rules further to clarify that for certain awards such as the Noble Peace Prize, Turing Awards, Magsaysay Awards, and Olympic Medalists, the Senate Medal of Excellence can be given automatically. That can be discussed and proposed, and we only need a majority vote of all those present to amend our rules under Sec. 136."

"And to be sure, this will be taken up immediately when we resume session in November. We will have to clarify when the clause for a unanimous vote does and does not apply, and if need be, we will introduce the proper amendments to avoid any further confusion in the future," he continued.

"Until then, I join the whole country, not just as a legislator but as an ordinary Filipino, in celebrating Maria Ressa’s historic achievement," Zubiri said.