House quorum tagged casualty of assemblies for pols

STUDENTS of Cavite State University take selfies while waiting for the speech of Vice President Jejomar Binay in an assembly that drew lawmakers supporting the Vice President’s presidential bid. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

DIGOS CITY—The political season has taken a heavy toll on a daily requirement for the House of Representatives to be able to do its job—quorum.

Renato Magtubo, a member of the party-list group Partido ng Manggagawa and its former representative in the House, said the session hall of the House had been empty in recent days because, instead of attending sessions, legislators are busy serving as cheerleaders or rah-rah boys of presidential candidates.

Lawmakers, Magtubo said in a statement, should devote their time to the job they were sworn to do—pass laws.

Early this week, the House had failed to muster a quorum. Magtubo said important pieces of legislation, like the Bangsamoro Basic Law, had been left hanging as a result.

“Club Filipino and Gloria Maris were filled up but there was no quorum in Congress,” said Magtubo, referring to the two venues of assemblies organized for the presidential bid of Interior Secretary Manuel Araneta Roxas II.

Congressmen, he said, were also present in Vice President Jejomar Binay’s so-called true state of the nation address in Cavite, but absent in the House.

Roxas had been officially endorsed as the administration candidate by President Aquino in Club Filipino in a gathering attended by members of the ruling Liberal Party, many of them legislators.

Members of the Cabinet, local government officials and Roxas’ relatives were also there.

Magtubo said the absence of legislators in House sessions could be the result of pressure from their party leaders to show up at meetings for their presidential candidates.

“Rather than pressure congressmen to show their support for those running in 2016, they should be encouraging them to pass important (pieces of) legislation like the Security of Tenure Bill, Anti-Dynasty Bill and Freedom of Information Bill, among others,” he said.

He said it is obvious that the administration was using its influence on and exerting pressure on legislators to ensure the victory of Roxas, who is lagging in surveys behind other presidential contenders like Sen. Grace Poe, Binay and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

Binay and his United Nationalist Alliance, on the other hand, have been mobilizing opposition lawmakers to join him in his daily sorties and in organizing his party nationwide to prop his chances for 2016, according to Magtubo.

Magtubo said there are rumblings in the House that “loyalty checks” are singling out legislators who were absent during the anointment of Roxas in Club Filipino, as well as those not present in Gloria Maris, like Speaker Feliciano Belmonte.

Rumors of a plot to unseat the Speaker came out last month after he issued statements supporting Poe as presidential candidate.

Magtubo said reports are also circulating about charges being used to blackmail legislators into supporting Roxas.

Magtubo said the “carrot and stick” strategy by both administration and opposition groups is not new, but should be stopped.

“It’s saddening to see the same tactics being employed to bully lawmakers into supporting a political agenda instead of a people’s agenda,” Magtubo said.

“We hope that in the last few months of Congress our legislators will focus on passing vital measures instead of allowing themselves to become pawns in the upcoming elections,” he added. Eldie Aguirre, Inquirer Mindanao