FIFTEEN senators on Monday filed a resolution to amend certain Senate rules to allow the conduct of plenary sessions and committee hearings through electronic means while the extended enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) remains in effect in Metro Manila and several other areas.
Congress is set to resume sessions on May 4. ECQ rules restrict travel and movement, and mass gatherings, among others.
The House last month amended its rules, allowing the congressmen to hold a virtual session to tackle the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act which grants President Duterte additional powers to respond to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, including the authority to realign items under the 2020 national budget. Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano last week said the House would most likely hold virtual sessions during the resumption, similar to that during the special session last March 23 when it passed the Bayanihan Act.
The senators, in Resolution 372, said the extended ECQ, which is up to May 15, prohibits mass gatherings and mandates the suspension of all public transportation, observance of strict home quarantine and restrictions on movement and travel, except those which are related to accessing basic necessities such as food and medicines, border control, banking and finance, public utilities and other critical services.
They said the limitations in movement should not prevent Congress from exercising its constitutional mandate to enact laws and authorize appropriations, including those vital for the government to respond to the pandemic, “while ensuring the safety and well-being of the affected population.”
The senators said the Constitution allows each house of Congress to determine the rules of its proceedings, hence the senators decided to amend Rule XI Section 22 and Rule XIV Section 41 of the Rules of the Senate.
“The committee may conduct meetings and hearings through teleconference, video conference, or other reliable forms of remote or electronic means, using appropriate information and communications technology systems in case when there is force majeure or occurrence of an emergency which may prevent the senators from physically attending the committee meetings or hearings,” they said in the resolution.
They said Senate Secretary Myra Villarica will be tasked to recommend the appropriate information and communication technology system to be used which will be subject to the approval of Senate President Vicente Sotto III.
The resolution was introduced by Senate President pro tempore Ralph Recto, Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon, and Senators Juan Edgardo Angara, Nancy Binay, Pia Cayetano, Ronald dela Rosa, Sherwin Gatchalian, Manuel Lapid, Imee Marcos, Emmanuel Pacquiao, Grace Poe, Ramon Revilla Jr., Joel Villanueva, and Cynthia Villar.
