In the United States, as defined by law scholars, the legislature is included in the theoretical framework called “the pillars of the justice system”.
Rightly so. The ideal legislature competently and independently studies and adopts policies and laws that affect the very future of a nation, especially its justice system.
In the Philippines, as defined and practiced by the Philippine Judiciary, the five (5) pillars of the justice system are limited only to “law enforcement, prosecution, judiciary, penology, and community”. The legislature is excluded.
Rightly so. The Philippine legislature is a disgrace to the republic. In fact, it is the very cause of its national decay and suicide.
Its media and headline-hugging legislators are better known for paid absenteeism, entrenched corruption, genetic laziness, endemic incompetence, immoral junkets, and contemptible entertainment circuses on the plenary floor.
Look at the elitist, selfish, greedy, incompetent, lazy, corrupt and PR image-conscious thieves, pirates and goons disguised as congresspersons and senators who constitute the Philippine Congress.
Look at the measly number and poor quality of the laws of national significance that they have adopted these past congresses.
Look at the billions of tax money that Congress, in conspiracy with the Executive, have conveniently and secretly allocated for their abhorrent pork barrels, wasteful junket foreign trips, immorally huge salaries and allowances, and other disgustingly fat perks.
Listen to the vulgar language, ignorant debates and entertainment circuses that regularly take place in the so-called august and honorable halls of Congress.
Look at the wealthy lobby groups and vested interests that these corrupt legislators protect and serve.
And you have a recipe for a national-scale rebellion and civil war by hungry, discontented, and hopeless Filipinos.
I gathered below some news items and articles on the poor performance and obnoxious quality of the 14th Congress.
Read them. Form your own opinion.
To my compatriots, I ask: Do you think we can intelligently entrust the fate and future of our Constitution, our Republic, and the 90 million suffering Filipinos to these criminals, sycophants, thieves, pirates, and freeloaders?
May God have mercy on the Republic of the Philippines.
Editorial
Stranded
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:19:00 02/09/2010
Congress adjourned last week, bypassing more than a dozen important measures and committee reports. The Senate adjourned without doing anything on its last session day for lack of quorum. The House of Representatives adjourned also without acting on pending measures for lack of time and quorum.
Ostensibly, the minority boycotted the last session day of the Senate to prevent the consideration of a resolution which would censure Sen. Manuel Villar, Nacionalista Party presidential candidate, on the C-5 road controversy. Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said she joined the minority boycott to block alleged attempts to pass two controversial bills. One seeks to reorganize the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and give its board chair security of tenure. It would have the effect of preventing the new president from appointing a new Pagcor head. The other measure would reorganize the National Telecommunications Commission. Santiago said the NTC bill would have far-reaching consequences because the agency has control over the importation of signal jammers that could disrupt the operation of poll automation machines, cell phones, radios and other telecommunication devices and tools.
Two committee reports that were bypassed were the Senate committee of the whole’s report on the C-5 road controversy and the Senate blue ribbon committee’s report on the controversial $329-million NBN-ZTE deal which says President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is “answerable” for the “stinking” deal.
Other measures bypassed were the proposed Freedom of Information Act, Reproductive Health Bill, a New Central Bank Act, LPG Regulation and Safety Act, Cybercrime Prevention Act, Early Voting Bill, Proposed Philippine Tax Academy and an Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and the Right of Reply Bill.
It is unfortunate that the Freedom of Information Act was not passed because the final measure was the product of months of hearings, deliberations and debates in the Senate and House and in the bicameral conference committee. It would have given flesh to the spirit of the constitutional provision that says that the people have the right of access to information “subject to such limitations as may be defined by law.” If the measure is not passed before the 14th Congress finally adjourns in June, it will have to be re-filed and will have to go again through the congressional mill. But it is good that the Right of Reply Bill which would have restricted freedom of the press was not passed.
The bypassed Reproductive Health Bill would have allowed the promotion of both natural and artificial birth control methods in government health centers. It is a very controversial measure, and apparently many legislators did not want to touch it because they did not want to antagonize the Catholic Church at a time when they are running for reelection.
The Central Bank bill, the Cybercrime bill, the LPG industry regulation bill, the early voting bill, the proposed Philippine Tax Academy and the bill on the crime of involuntary disappearance are all well-intentioned measures. But they were not passed largely because of lack of quorum in both the Senate and the House, and the lack of quorum was caused principally by partisan maneuverings.
The Senate and the House may yet have an opportunity to redeem themselves and pass the beneficial and uncontroversial measures during the session from May 31 to June 4 when the canvassing of the presidential election returns start.
The majority and opposition groups in the Senate could come to a gentleman’s agreement that they will not consider the resolution on the C-5 road controversy until the last one day or two days of the session, after they shall have acted on the important pending measures. The leadership of the House, for their part, could try their best to muster a quorum so that the chamber could pass pending measures and ratify some bicameral committee reports.
Members of Congress are elected by their constituents to pass laws, not to get embroiled forever in partisan wrangling and maneuvers. It’s time they really earned the millions that the suffering taxpayers are paying them in salaries, allowances, pork barrel and other perks. It’s time they did some real work and passed the pending important measures.
See:
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/editorial/view/20100209-252089/Stranded
House pressed to ratify information bill in May
By Leila Salaverria
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 14:06:00 02/06/2010
Filed Under: Congress, Legislation
MANILA, Philippines – Wary about losing the slim chance for ratification of the freedom of information bill, supporters of the measure urged Speaker Prospero Nograles Saturday to put the matter on top of the agenda when Congress resumes its session in May.
Nepomuceno Malaluan of the "Right to Know, Right Now!" campaign said Nograles should put his money where his mouth was and essentially guarantee the bill's ratification. Nograles, in earlier statements, has supported the bill.
Congress will resume session on May 31 up to June 2, when it is expected to canvass the votes for president and vice president, and tackle pending legislative measures. The lack of quorum, a perennial concern in the House, may hamper the proceedings, however.
“We have reposed such trust on the speaker to let this through, but because it did not happen, we hope Speaker Nograles can convince us that the trust reposed on him will be there on May 31. We ask Speaker Nograles to expressly commit that we will put the ratification of the FOI ahead of any business,” Malaluan said at the Kapihan sa Sulo forum.
But Nograles did not commit himself, and pointed out that other pending bills were also considered equally important by their proponents.
“It's on the agenda but all in the agenda are equally important to certain sectors. [It] may not be important to others,” he said.
He also said he could not guarantee a quorum.
See:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100206-251619/House-pressed-to-ratify-information-bill-in-May
Freedom of info bill in dying gasp
By Leila Salaverria
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 07:47:00 02/05/2010
MANILA, Philippines—The freedom of information bill is on its last gasps after the House of Representatives failed to ratify it on its last session day on Wednesday for lack of a quorum.
Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III, one of the bill’s proponents, suspects an attempt to halt the bill’s ratification after a series of puzzling events, including the disappearance of printed copies of the measure that was supposed to have been distributed to lawmakers.
According to Tañada, there could be a last chance for the bill to pass during the brief 3-day resumption of the congressional sessions on May 31, June 1 and June 2, after Congress finishes the canvassing of the votes for President and Vice President.
But he fears that the lack of a quorum would still be a problem then.
“This [will be] the test of the House leadership, if they’re for the freedom of information bill,” Tañada said.
The Senate has ratified the bill, the farthest that it has gotten in the 23 years that various legislatures have tried to pass a freedom of information act. The bill is 23 years too late, Tañada said.
The bill requires that records of contracts, loans and agreements, as well as government officials’ statements of assets, liabilities and net worth, be available for scrutiny by the public. It also limits the kind of official data that can be kept secret.
According to Tañada, before the bill could be included in the agenda, he had to present a lot of requirements, such as providing the original copy of the bill and several other copies, which were not asked of him before.
Thursday, he learned that about 50 copies made of the bill for distribution to lawmakers had gone missing from the session hall. He had to ask that copies be reprinted.
The lack of a quorum also blocked the ratification of the proposed immigration act and the oath-taking of two lawmakers, the Liberal Party’s Celestino Martinez III as representative of Cebu’s 4th district, and Dominga Espina of the Coco Fed party-list group.
See:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100205-251424/Freedom-of-info-bill-in-dying-gasp
Political Tidbits
Biggest spenders and ‘kuripot’ in the Senate
By Belinda Olivares-Cunanan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:47:00 02/09/2010
Senators Bong Revilla and Jinggoy Estrada are No. 1 and 2 in the senatorial poll surveys. They are also among the biggest spenders of public money, as shown in the Commission on Audit report recently published in the Philippine Star, alongside Sen. Kiko Pangilinan. All three senators spent over P17 million each for their office expenses. The exception among show-biz people is Sen. Lito Lapid, who spent P15.3 million and was seventh thriftiest among the 23 senators.
Among the senators aspiring for the presidency, Sen. Nonoy Aquino spent P16.7 million compared to Sen. Manny Villar’s P15.7 million. Sen. Richard Gordon was the most frugal, spending P14.6 million, which put him at No. 4 in the overall thrifty list.
The shocker is Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who does not and cannot move around because he is in a military stockade. He spent a whopping P17.2 million or P47,000 a day! Ironically, Trillanes receives that kind of money from the government he sought to topple.
But by far the biggest spender in the Senate is his fellow senator with a military background and who once also tried to topple the Aquino government, Gregorio Honasan, who ended up with P17.9 million in expenses.
* * *
The thriftiest among them all is Sen. Joker Arroyo who spent only P12.6 million and retained for the 18th straight year the title of “Scrooge of Congress” for being so kuripot since the time he entered the House. Arroyo is followed in the honor roll by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., with expenses at P14.3 million, and Sen. Edgardo Angara, with P14.5 million.
* * *
See:
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100209-252094/Biggest-spenders-and-kuripot-in-the-Senate
Analysis
Villar above rules of Senate on disciplinary action
By Amando Doronila
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 02:56:00 02/08/2010
CHARGES against four members of Parliament in Britain for falsely claiming parliamentary expenses are rocking the foundations of the United Kingdom’s political system.
The political storm over the “dishonest claims” of the MPs involved three from the ruling Labor Party and one from the Tory Party.
The storm erupted at the same time that the Philippine Senate (an institution that has great pretensions as a bulwark of democracy) is split over a report of its top committee finding that one of its senior members, Manuel Villar, is guilty of unethical conduct in relation to the C-5 road extension project.
The Senate committee of the whole, which includes 22 senators, has recommended the censure of Villar for transactions of his real estate companies associated with the project.
The circumstances surrounding the charges against the four British MPs are different from those surrounding the case against Villar, but these essentially involve ethical issues.
The purpose of this report is to illustrate the contrasting manner by which the British Parliament, the mother of all parliaments, and the Philippine Senate are handling cases involving members who have been investigated for wrongdoing or abuse of parliamentary privilege.
There is public outrage in the Philippines over Villar’s transactions, as there is outrage in Britain over the MP claims of expenses stemming from the discharge of parliamentary duties.
This report is based on accounts of British media, especially BBC News and Financial Times.
On Friday, Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer laid charges of false accounting under Section 17 of the Theft Act of 1968 against MPs Elliot Morley, Jim Devine, David Chaytor, all Labor, and the Tory peer Lord Hanningfield.
Rent, cleaning services
The MPs face a maximum sentence of seven years in prison if convicted. Morley faces two charges over 30,000 pounds of mortgage-interest claims; Chaytor is accused of dishonestly claiming 1,950 pounds for IT services and 18,000 pounds in rent; Devine is accused of claiming 3,240 pounds for cleaning services and 5,500 pounds for stationery; and Lord Hanningfield faces six charges of dishonestly submitting expense claims.
Lord Hanningfield denies the charge, saying he will “vigorously” defend himself in court. However, he immediately stood down from front-bench duties in the House of Lords, as shadow business spokesperson “to avoid embarrassment or distraction for [his] party.”
The Conservatives suspended him from the parliamentary party. He has also quit as leader of the Essex County Council.
The Labor Party was no less severe on its MPs. All three Labor MPs denied the charges and said they would defend themselves “vigorously.” Labor Prime Minister Gordon Brown was outraged, saying he was “very angry about what has happened.”
Serious criminal allegations
He said: “We took steps some months ago to remove the right of these people to stand as candidates for the Labor Party. These are very serious criminal allegations. All criminal allegations have got to be investigated. It’s a matter now for the courts.”
The four men will not be arrested but will be sent a summons to turn up on March 11 at the City of Westminster magistrates court.
“We have concluded that there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges and that it is in the public interest to charge the individuals concerned,” the prosecutor said.
The MPs invoked their privilege of parliamentary immunity, saying they maintain that the issue should be resolved by the parliamentary commissioner “who is there to enforce any breach of the rules.”
Their lawyers are expected to claim their expenses are covered by parliamentary privilege, which traditionally protects them from being sued for what they say in the House of Commons.
The prosecutor addressed the issue of parliamentary privilege when he announced the decision to press charges.
“We have considered that question and concluded that applicability and extent of any parliamentary privilege claimed should be tested in court,” he said.
Impunity
A Labor MP, Paul Flynn, appealed to his three colleagues to ignore the lawyers’ argument about parliamentary privilege.
Flynn said it was never intended to give politicians “immunity” from criminal charges and if used it would “deepen and prolong” the expenses scandal which has gripped Westminster.
“There may be a technical argument about this, but it is one that will be treated with contempt by the majority of the people of this country,” he told BBC.
“Already, they feel cynicism about the politicians, saying there’s one for the MPs and one for the rest of us,” he added.
While Villar’s case does not involve dishonest claims of expenses, the Senate report also involves an ethical issue, based on a Senate investigation of the charges brought by Sen. Jamby Madrigal.
The criminal charges against the MPs stemmed from investigations for nine months of their claims by the parliamentary oversight bodies.
Defiant
Villar’s real estate transactions were also investigated by his peers, as the claims of the expenses of the MPs were investigated and acted upon by their peers.
One difference is that Villar does not face criminal charges over his transactions. Villar has taken a defiant stand against peers who find him guilty of unethical conduct.
Villar boycotted the hearings on the case and refused to face colleagues critical of him to defend himself.
He said he was not expecting a fair deal from the majority senators who signed the report because they were biased against him.
The issue of parliamentary privilege has not been raised in the C-5 case.
Allies of Villar, a presidential candidate, have argued that he, as a senator, cannot be forced to appear at the committee hearings and to accept the report’s decision seeking his censure.
Preview of Villar’s attitude
His defiance gives a preview of an attitude that Villar is above censure and accountability for his actions connected to his companies’ activities to push the C-5 project.
The project is covered by appropriations in which he intervened during its budgetary hearings as member of Congress.
There’s no way that he will step down or suspend his campaign for the presidency while a boycott of his allies is preventing the Senate from voting to censure him.
He remains untouchable in this regard. In stonewalling on the committee report, Villar is a law unto himself and above the rules of the Senate on disciplinary action for breach of the rules.
There are no party sanctions to bar him from election activity until he is cleared by the Senate, simply because he is president of the Nacionalista Party.
See:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100208-251897/Villar-above-rules-of-Senate-on-disciplinary-action
Vulgar language in Senate
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:52:00 02/09/2010
The heated exchange on the Senate floor, where supposedly distinguished senators used uncouth words should not be tolerated by any decent, peace-loving Filipino. Nay, it must be denounced in the strongest terms.
The vulgar language spread like wildfire as it was reported in mass media. An intemperate phrase from the mouth of “honorable” senators became a dirty public joke, an affront to womanhood. How insensible our senators could be that they should stoop so low.
Is this the kind of legacy they are handing down to our youth? How would these legislators feel in their retirement when they look back to these public statements?
It is indeed very unchristian to trade barbed words in a debate. Debate they must, but in a dignified way, using decent language that does not cloud reasons with sarcasm, insult and innuendos; following the formalities and decorum befitting an august chamber. Thus, win or lose their actions would be worth emulating by the young.
Hurt and ashamed of what we saw, heard and read, we offer nonetheless our prayers for our legislators, that the Holy Spirit may always guide them during congressional deliberations, so that they will avoid the use of gutter language.
—FR. FIDEL G. FABILE
(in behalf of associate pastors and the parish council),
Mary Immaculate Parish, Las Piñas City
See:
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/letterstotheeditor/view/20100209-252116/Vulgar-language-in-Senate
Note: Fr. Fidel Fabile and I used to serve together in the development foundation of his parish church, of which I was the pro bono legal counsel from 1987 to 2005. He is the incumbent parish priest of Mary Immaculate Parish, Moonwalk Village, Las Pinas City, Philippines. I left my said pro bono parochial positions in the parish due to serious policy disagreements with its priests and lay leaders on the proper management and protection of the funds and assets of the parish foundation and its projects and on the observance of transparency and accountability on the part of the priests and financial personnel in relation to the funds and assets of the parish and its development foundation.
