August 26, 2006 – (Manila) – Last Thursday, August 24, the House of Representatives, after a total of seventeen hours of a grueling extended session, finally decided to vote and throw out the over a dozen impeachment cases filed against President Gloria Arroyo.
The opposition needed at least 79 votes for the petition to be elevated into the main plenary and for it to be heard but unlike last year’s attempt to impeach the President, only a handful of Members of Congress gave the thumbs up to the impeachment this week.
A total of 30 legislators abstained from the voting and most were absent as reason to why they were considered, abstained. Out of the 288 members of the lower house, everybody was there starting 4PM of Wednesday (or even earlier perhaps) until 9AM of Thursday the following day.
Members of the House should be complimented and praised to high heavens for their dedicated support and focus on trouncing and junking the impeachment petition, this is what we call “Congress in Real Action!”
Now, if only the members of the legislative branch could be as focused, dedicated and intense on working on several key legislations, especially those that are urgently needed, then maybe there is something worth smiling about.
It is simply amazing to see that the House of Representatives could really work together as one, urgently acting on one item and completing it in just under 24 hours.
Considering the importance of the issue, by goodness, impeaching the dear President of this Republic is an important matter but how about the other matters that are needed.
Taking the case of the National Appropriations for this year which is now dead or we say is very much dead. The government is content on just having a re-enacted budget from the year 2005.
This coming September, government agencies are in full swing trying to identify projects that need funding for next year and come October, the House and Senate committees on budget and finance will start reviewing the budget proposals.
Hours will be spent on hearing agency heads defending their budgets while some will be forced to answer mundane question or be threatened with just a One Peso budget simply because a member of the legislative branch don’t like the agency head.
The current Speaker of the House prides himself as the leader who has made congressmen rally for a cause but he can’t make his people rally to complete anything at all.
From 1987 to 1992, Speaker Ramon V. Mitra took the reigns of the House of Representatives and he was able to lead the lower chamber into enacting laws that helped re-shape this country after years of being subject to a dictatorship.
Current Speaker Jose de Venecia had his golden years from 1992 to 1998 and the priority bills that President Fidel Ramos wanted and needed were meticulously reviewed and passed into law.
Traditionally back then, before the end of every fiscal year which is on the midnight of December 31, the national budget for the following year is already a low, unlike today, when it takes almost forever for the national budget to get any serious attention, often just before Congress ends its current session by June, they are still scrambling to review items on the budget.
In the case of the impeachment voting last Thursday, it was essential that they show their support for the incumbent President, or else they will face four years of difficulties in receiving their much wanted, much coveted pork barrels.
Since most of the members of congress have been fully served with their shares of pork grease, well, when they needed to all do dance the tango, they did and the opposition dipped during the tango and stayed on the floor during the rest of the dance.
In the next coming weeks, the dance of cha-cha will soon be in fad again as the administration demands the change in the Constitution of this republic (again?!) in order to bring about improvements in how the government works.
Charter Change is a very sensitive issue and with 288 supposed independent minds in the lower chamber plus another set of 24 head strong and stubborn minds in the senate, it will be difficult for the issue to gain any step forward but then again, “grease” has its way of loosening and lubricating things specially if it is the grease from pork.
Before Charter Change, there are several legislation items that are needed to be addressed but it will take the back seat for a while, as long as politics remains the center piece issue that will hound this republic.
In less than six months, more politics will be at play since mid-term elections are due on May 2007.
So with prospects of getting anything really and urgently important getting very dim in the next few months, let’s all stand and applause the House of Representatives for doing a really fast job in junking the impeachment petition.
At least once in a while, Congress finally gets to work on its act together.
The opposition needed at least 79 votes for the petition to be elevated into the main plenary and for it to be heard but unlike last year’s attempt to impeach the President, only a handful of Members of Congress gave the thumbs up to the impeachment this week.
A total of 30 legislators abstained from the voting and most were absent as reason to why they were considered, abstained. Out of the 288 members of the lower house, everybody was there starting 4PM of Wednesday (or even earlier perhaps) until 9AM of Thursday the following day.
Members of the House should be complimented and praised to high heavens for their dedicated support and focus on trouncing and junking the impeachment petition, this is what we call “Congress in Real Action!”
Now, if only the members of the legislative branch could be as focused, dedicated and intense on working on several key legislations, especially those that are urgently needed, then maybe there is something worth smiling about.
It is simply amazing to see that the House of Representatives could really work together as one, urgently acting on one item and completing it in just under 24 hours.
Considering the importance of the issue, by goodness, impeaching the dear President of this Republic is an important matter but how about the other matters that are needed.
Taking the case of the National Appropriations for this year which is now dead or we say is very much dead. The government is content on just having a re-enacted budget from the year 2005.
This coming September, government agencies are in full swing trying to identify projects that need funding for next year and come October, the House and Senate committees on budget and finance will start reviewing the budget proposals.
Hours will be spent on hearing agency heads defending their budgets while some will be forced to answer mundane question or be threatened with just a One Peso budget simply because a member of the legislative branch don’t like the agency head.
The current Speaker of the House prides himself as the leader who has made congressmen rally for a cause but he can’t make his people rally to complete anything at all.
From 1987 to 1992, Speaker Ramon V. Mitra took the reigns of the House of Representatives and he was able to lead the lower chamber into enacting laws that helped re-shape this country after years of being subject to a dictatorship.
Current Speaker Jose de Venecia had his golden years from 1992 to 1998 and the priority bills that President Fidel Ramos wanted and needed were meticulously reviewed and passed into law.
Traditionally back then, before the end of every fiscal year which is on the midnight of December 31, the national budget for the following year is already a low, unlike today, when it takes almost forever for the national budget to get any serious attention, often just before Congress ends its current session by June, they are still scrambling to review items on the budget.
In the case of the impeachment voting last Thursday, it was essential that they show their support for the incumbent President, or else they will face four years of difficulties in receiving their much wanted, much coveted pork barrels.
Since most of the members of congress have been fully served with their shares of pork grease, well, when they needed to all do dance the tango, they did and the opposition dipped during the tango and stayed on the floor during the rest of the dance.
In the next coming weeks, the dance of cha-cha will soon be in fad again as the administration demands the change in the Constitution of this republic (again?!) in order to bring about improvements in how the government works.
Charter Change is a very sensitive issue and with 288 supposed independent minds in the lower chamber plus another set of 24 head strong and stubborn minds in the senate, it will be difficult for the issue to gain any step forward but then again, “grease” has its way of loosening and lubricating things specially if it is the grease from pork.
Before Charter Change, there are several legislation items that are needed to be addressed but it will take the back seat for a while, as long as politics remains the center piece issue that will hound this republic.
In less than six months, more politics will be at play since mid-term elections are due on May 2007.
So with prospects of getting anything really and urgently important getting very dim in the next few months, let’s all stand and applause the House of Representatives for doing a really fast job in junking the impeachment petition.
At least once in a while, Congress finally gets to work on its act together.
* * *
No comments:
Post a Comment