House reactivates congressional oversight panel

The House of Representatives has reactivated its congressional oversight committee after Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. named Minority Leader Danilo Suarez as the panel’s chair during their Wednesday session.

The panel, tasked to assess the performance of various government agencies to ensure transparency and accountability, was abolished during the 15th Congress and under the term of former President Benigno Aquino III. The committee was existent from the 12th to the 14th Congress.

Suarez earlier filed House Resolution No. 2074 which urged the House to look into the possibility of reviving the oversight panel. He used to head the body during the 14th Congress.

In filing the resolution, the Quezon representative said the separation of powers in the government as provided for by the 1987 Constitution “is not absolute and does not intend to keep the three branches of the government absolutely unrestrained and independent.”

“The principle of checks and balances is embedded in our Constitution to ensure that there will be no abuse of power and to correct mistakes or excesses committed by the other branches of the government,” he added.

The so-called House Independent Bloc, which former Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez led, filed the same resolution during the16th Congress. Suarez said House Resolution No. 268 “was not acted upon until the end of the 16th Congress.” /ee