and RAYMOND AFRICA
THE House of Representatives on Monday adopted a motion allowing lawmakers to attend and participate in the plenary session through videoconferencing or other electronic means to avoid the spread of the dreaded coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Congressmen resumed session with only 25 warm bodies on the floor led by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano who briefly presided over the session.
At the Senate, 15 senators were physically present while eight others attended the resumption online. The senators approved the holding of “hybrid” sessions and hearings after amending the Rules of the Senate.
The senators adopted Resolution 372 which allows committee hearings, meetings, and plenary sessions by use of electronic devices through teleconferencing, video conference, “or other reliable forms of remote or electronic means.”
Before the resumption of session, 18 of some 500 Senate employees tested positive in rapid tests for COVID-19.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said the 15 were told to undergo the real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test to confirm if they are infected with the novel coronavirus 19, and to go on a 14-day quarantine.
The rapid test, which detects COVID-19 antibodies in the blood, are not as accurate as the real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test which the health department said detects the virus itself.
Sotto said of the 15, three were staff members of three senators, one is a waiter, one a page, and the rest were members of the Office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms (OSAA).
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said one of the 15 is his staff member. He said testing positive with “immunoglobulin G”(IgG) does not necessarily mean that an individual is already COVID-19 positive “because the rapid test cannot detect COVID itself.”
“Her test yielded positive with IgG, meaning she already has anti-bodies. She’s not positive with COVID,” Gatchalian said.
Four other Senate staff members earlier tested positive for COVID-19, aside from three senators — Juan Miguel Zubiri, Aquilino Pimentel III, and Juan Edgardo Angara.
At the House, majority leader Martin Romualdez told presiding officer deputy speaker Raneo Abu, “Mr. Speaker, in order for the House of Representatives to continue with the unhampered performance of its constitutional mandate amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and with due consideration on the health and safety of its members, employees, and guests, with leave of the House, I move that we allow members to register their attendance, participate and vote on any matter presented to the body through telecommunications and/or other online messaging and email by using their respective contact numbers, pre-registered by the members verified by the Secretary General.”
Abu declared the motion “carried.”
The House also adopted the majority leader’s motion to allow the leadership to adopt a rotation system for the next set of attendees in the next session days.
The House likewise carried the motion to “authorize all committees to conduct meetings through online technologies subject to the internal rules and procedures that may be implemented by these committees for the duration of the COVID threat.”
Cayetano apologized to those who could not physically attend the session, saying House members have to understand that the “pandemic cannot get worse because of us.”
“We have to be first to follow social distancing,” he said in his opening speech. “We will defeat COVID-19…and we refuse to be defeated by this disease.”
During the session, Anakalusugan party-list Rep. Mike Defensor, chair of the House committee on public accounts, urged the House to conduct an investigation into the alleged failure of implementing agencies to efficiently deliver the government’s financial aid to the public.
While the President did his job, Defensor said “there seems to be a problem in the implementation by government agencies.”
At the Senate, the new rules allow senators to vote, sponsor committee reports, and participate during interpellation and period of amendments, whether a senator is just online.
Those physically present were Sotto, president pro tempore Ralph Recto, majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, and Senators Nancy Binay, Sherwin Gatchalian, Christopher Go, Richard Gordon, Panfilo Lacson, Manuel Lapid, Emmanuel Pacquiao, Grace Poe, Ramon Revilla Jr., Ronald dela Rosa, Francis Tolentino, and Joel Villanueva.
Those online were minority leader Franklin Drilon, and Senators Francis Pangilinan, Pia Cayetano, Imee Marcos, Risa Hontiveros, Cynthia Villar, Aquilino Pimentel III, and Juan Edgardo Angara.
The Senate also passed on third and final reading with a vote of 22-0-0, the Alternative Learning System Act, which will put ALS community learning centers (CLCs) in every city and municipality.
Gatchalian, principal author, said this will give more Filipinos outside the formal school system a second chance to complete their basic education.
