MEMBERS of the House of Representatives have fallen behind in the matter of face-to-face attendance and the reckoning of quorum during plenary sessions. Now that COVID-19 has taken the backseat in the ranks of public health issues, and with the government no longer enforcing the compulsory wearing of face masks, the House is still honoring attendance by Zoom or virtual presence.
Noting this, a group of representatives has filed House Resolution No. 859 asking the House leadership for a return to the full face-to-face plenary sessions in the lower chamber of Congress.
It should be noted that the upper chamber, the Senate, has long been conducting its sessions with physical presence of its members.
ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro, one of the sponsors of the resolution, explained the rationale of the Makabayan bloc’s position: “It is unfortunate and ironic that while the country has mandated all school-age children from the youngest kindergarten pupil to the oldest college student and all workers and employees in public and private offices and workplaces to return to pre-pandemic face-to-face reporting, this is not so with the members of the House of Representatives.”
‘For reasons of practicality and openness, there is merit in the request of the militant Makabayan solons to revert to the full face to face plenary sessions…’
Majority Leader and Zamboanga City 2nd district Rep. Mannix Dalipe said he would refer the measure to the appropriate committee, the newly-created Rules Rewriting Ad Hoc committee, as part of the legislative process. Dalipe is head of the powerful Committee on Rules.
It can be recalled that representatives were allowed to attend plenary proceedings through virtual means, using the application Zoom, during the height of the pandemic in 2020.
After more than a year, the procedure of respecting online or electronic presence in House sessions has become part of the new normal because this was adopted by the rules.
For reasons of practicality and openness, there is merit in the request of the militant Makabayan solons to revert to the full face-to-face plenary sessions because this would allow for more thorough and exhaustive debates on important bills and issues. Face-to-face encounter with colleagues also ensures that sessions won’t be delayed by electronic glitches that might even interfere with the voting process.
It is good that the House of Representatives under Speaker Martin Romualdez is pliant enough to yield to reason in cases of revising the rules, although there is a process in doing this. Deputy Majority Leader and Iloilo 1st district Rep. Janette Garin said during a recent plenary session that the rules rewriting panel had been created recently and held its first meeting last Feb. 27.
“There is a process that we are undergoing, but the rules as it is now state that electronic platforms are still considered in terms of determining the presence of a quorum,” she said.
Garin was then responding to Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman, who was pushing for the physical presence rule.
It is best that the House follows the rest of society in reckoning rules involving COVID-19 restrictions. The overarching rule should be what is good for the goose must also be good for the gander.
