Daily press briefing is an old plan House has just ‘perfected,’ says Albano

Members of House committee on constitutional amendments are shown in this file photo at a media briefing in Quezon city.  — GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — The holding of daily press briefings by House of Representatives is part of an old plan to inform the people about the chamber’s activities and achievements.

Deputy Speaker Antonio Albano made this statement in a press briefing on Monday.

Albano said the idea was first brought up at the start of the 19th Congress in June 2022 and it is only now that the undertaking is being done.

“We, the House of the People, led by our good Speaker Martin G. Romualdez, intended to establish daily press conferences from the very beginning of the 19th Congress,” Albano told reporters.

“This daily press conference was conceptualized last June of 2022, and, we have just now recently deployed and perfected it,” he said.

“These daily presscons are created so that the people will know what the lower house of congress is doing, what we’ve achieved, what we’ve accomplished, and what is pending for us to work on for the good of our beloved country and our people,” he added.

Albano did not mention why House is making the clarification.

But Senator Sonny Angara recently called the events as ‘daily attacks’ and saw the actions as forms bullying.

Angara had noted Senate does not have time to engage in media conferences every single day.

“I think it’s almost every day now. How many times is it in a day? Like Jimmy Santos, ‘I love you three times a day,’ huh?” Angara wondered in Filipino.

He was alluding to a line Santos made famous in a 1980s TV commercial for a fast-food chain.

Senate and House have been at odds with one another due to discussions on amending the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution.