The Senate and the House of Representatives, which together compose the Congress of the Philippines, has one overarching function: legislation. If both chambers need resource persons to assist them, the lawmakers conduct committee hearings for this purpose. Recent experience in the conduct of committee hearings, however, have not been ideal, as it has become obvious that politics was in play in many of these congressional inquiries.
Examples of committee hearings where the political divide was most felt were the inquiries on extrajudicial killings and the war on illegal drugs during the past Duterte administration, conducted by the so-called Quad Comm panel in the House and the sub-committee of Sen. Koko Pimentel in the Senate.
‘… the Marcos administration will be freed from worries about operating under a reenacted budget next year, which is an election year.’
Pimentel somewhat achieved balance in his handling of the hearing where former President Rodrigo Duterte appeared as a witness and the senators, together with the public, heard first-hand information directly from the horse’s mouth the truth about the “Davao death squad” and police tactics developed by the former Davao mayor on how to legally engage criminals that would lead to their deaths.
At the House, the atmosphere in every Quad Comm hearing was aggressively combative against the Dutertes, both family members and former officials in the past administration. The ganging up was focused on Vice President Sara Duterte and the way she managed the two agencies under her — the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Office of the Vice President. The inquisitorial manner by which the House committees grilled the Vice President often revealed the congressmen’s motive of disparaging the VP to marginalize her chances of running for President in 2028, presumably against House Speaker Martin Romualdez. This did not escape public notice, since all these hearings are covered by TV, radio, print, social media and other platforms.
The announcement by Senate President Francis Escudero that no committee hearings will be held while senators scrutinize and debate on the proposed P6.352-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA), or the 2025 national budget, is welcomed by many as a fresh whiff of air.
Escudero said their Rules disallow all committees from conducting hearings during the annual plenary budget deliberations so senators can concentrate on reviewing Malacañang’s funding request. There will be exemptions to this rule, such as when the plenary or the presiding officer rules otherwise.
The senators will start holding Monday to Thursday plenary sessions, instead of the normal session days of Mondays to Wednesdays, after Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the Committee on Finance, sponsors the proposed 2025 GAA in plenary on Nov. 6. Plenary discussions on the budget measure are expected to last for two to three weeks.
The Senate has given itself until the first week of December to approve the 2025 national budget to give time to the bicameral conference committee to work on the final version of the proposed GAA for submission to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. by the third week of December.
This means the GAA bill will take precedence over other work schedules in the Senate, which is good because the Marcos administration will be freed from worries about operating under a reenacted budget next year, which is an election year.
