Who’s better: House or Senate?

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday rated the House of Representatives 8 on a scale of 10 in performance and took a potshot at the Senate, calling it the “slow chamber” because of  its sluggish action on legislation.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III quickly fired back, calling the Senate Congress’ “thinking chamber” and saying it was time Filipinos changed their mindset on lawmaking.

“Let us not judge lawmaking in terms of the number of laws passed but in terms of how the laws we pass improve the quality of life on Earth in general and the quality of life of Filipinos in particular,” Pimentel told reporters.

Alvarez has repeatedly taunted the Senate for taking too long in processing bills forwarded to it by the House, including the death penalty bill.

Quality, not quantity

“I have responded to that before by saying that the Senate is the thinking chamber,” Pimentel said.

He said it was natural that the House produced more bills because “local bills” originated from it.

Those bills, Pimentel said, include renaming hospitals, merging schools and increasing the number of hospital beds.

“But we must change our mindset. Quality, not quantity,” he said.

In an interview on television on Wednesday, Alvarez cited laws providing for free college education and expanded access to health services as two of the most significant measures passed by the House since it opened its session on June 25, 2016.

He said he was happy with a rating of 8 for the House because “most of the bills we have passed are pending in the Senate.”

“That is why only few have been signed into law,” he added.

“But we have passed many bills in the House of Representatives,” Alvarez said.

Among those measures was the death penalty bill, which the House passed last March, he said, adding that the measure had not made much progress in the Senate.

‘Be a bit more active’

Asked how the two chambers could cooperate in passing priority measures, Alvarez said it was up to the Senate leaders.

“The leadership in the Senate has to be a bit more active so they can pass more bills,” he said.

House records show that 6,911 bills and 1,517 resolutions have been filed in the chamber since the opening of the 17th Congress last year.

Of these, the House processed 2,100 and approved 518, or an average of 14 measures processed per session day.

Thirty-nine bills, 14 of them national in scope, were enacted into law, excluding the 2018 national budget and the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act, which President Rodrigo Duterte signed last month.