Sober minds prevail

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Sober minds prevail
Sunday, 08 11, 2002

All it took were the sober minds in the opposition, led by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., to strike a compromise on how to end the impasse at the Senate.

The formula was simple: Spread the proceedings of the June 3-6 sessions in the Record and the Journal of the Senate. Do not put the issue of validity on the floor. Do away with the debates for now; let future historians decide. Then proceed with the main business of the Senate – to legislate.

The Record and the Journal, respectively, contain the succinct and accurate account of what has taken place in every session. With the proceedings of the June 3-6 sessions spread in the Record and Journal, the public shall now be able to reflect in detail on everything that was said and done during the sessions, and make their judgment on the matter.

This notwithstanding the insistence of some hotheads in the administration bloc to force a resolution of the issue on the Senate floor, meaning, since they had the numbers, damn the arguments. The administration bloc might have had no valid arguments; but who cares, they had the numbers anyway and the opposition would have been outvoted 13-10 in any event? Had this steamroller approach been allowed, we would have ended with a far-more damaged institution after the debates.

Doing away with the debates on the validity of the June 3-6 sessions was a major concession of the opposition. The opposition senators may have been outnumbered on Aug. 5, but they clearly had the rules, precedents, and jurisprudence on their side, as against the shrill and hallow arguments that the administration senators were expected to dish out. With intellectual lightweights arguing in their behalf, the administration bloc would have been easy picking for the opposition senators. That debate between Senators Serge Osmeña III and Ping Lacson, both non-lawyers, on the one hand, and Sen. Rene Cayetano, a seasoned lawyer with a masteral degree in law, on the other, on the determination of quorum, exposed the paucity of the arguments of the administration bloc in any debate on the validity of the sessions. One can just imagine how miserable the administration bloc would have fared in a full-scale debate.

The overriding objective was for the Senate to go back to work, and dispel the public’s scorn for the wrangling senators. Pimentel, Angara et al. wanted the Senate to put the question of validity behind them. So much work was waiting to be done. And at 4:35 p.m. last Monday, the last of the squabbles was finally laid to rest. The bills passed on third reading during the June 3-6 sessions were recalled from the House of Representatives, to be passed again on third reading by the Senate. The approval on third reading of the absentee voting bill was also reconsidered, and Senator Angara resumed his defense of this landmark piece of legislation. The opposition cooperated, all for country.

What can we possibly learn from this mess created by the intransigent senators who are perhaps intellectually impervious to the principle that 12 constitutes the majority in a deliberative body of 23? Plenty.

First, despite the decimation of their ranks, the opposition members fended off a 13-0 vote against them, which would have declared that everything they said and did during the June 3-6 sessions amounted to nothing. Second, they preserved for history to judge that numbers do not make one bloc right, e.g., that a session attended by only seven does not serve to nullify the session convened by 12 constituting a quorum, or that the decision of 13 (out of 23) is not necessarily the correct one. Third, that the opposition constituting a minority can outthink those in the administration bloc who do not know how to get out of the mess the latter created. Fourth, that Pimentel, Angara, Aquino-Oreta, Biazon, Honasan, Ejercito-Estrada, Lacson, Serge Osmeña, Sonny Osmeña and Sotto are reasonable legislators who recognize the rule of the majority, and are principled in dealing with every issue. And, fifth, that henceforth the Rules of the Senate shall not allow a skewed interpretation to favor those constituting the majority, the Rules being designed really to protect those fewer in number.

One administration senator haughtily claimed it was a capitulation of the opposition. To this observer, it was statesmanship of the highest order, the opposition coming to the rescue of a revered institution by placing the gravitas of two contending arguments to the judgment of history. It did not take long for the public to realize it has senators who will not fall prey to the hotheads in the administration bloc. Pimentel, Angara et al. could not have arrived at a better solution than this, with two opposing blocs believing they each have won.

By their sheer force of numbers on Aug. 5, it could have been easy for the 13 senators in the administration bloc to declare the June 3-6 sessions invalid. But with that averted by the formula of Pimentel, Angara, et al., all records of these proceedings will now be fully disclosed. It would now be easier for the public to finally discern that the June 3 session of the administration bloc attended by only seven senators who sneaked into the session hall only after somebody had duped the holder of the keys that something valuable had been left inside; convened at 7:58 p.m., way past the appointed time of 3 p.m.; under the dimmed lights of the session hall; without a mace; with no one to witness the proceedings; without any audio and video coverage; no journal officer, debate stenographer or legislative page in attendance; and, adjourned sine die contrary to the congressional calendar – would be declared the rump session.

The objection of the mediocre one to the formula to end the impasse was one last gasp at grandstanding before the Senate would buckle down to work. For all the bankruptcy of his arguments on the issue, why he has to resort always to name-calling still remains a puzzle. He had hoped, with his objection, to erase from the Record and the Journal any and all documentation that the June 3-6 sessions were ever held. Nice try, but his colleagues would have none of his recipe to further divide the Senate.
Our honorable senators are now back to work. Undoubtedly, there will still be clashes of opinions among them which will be intensely discussed, debated and decided in the session hall. Let us hope that when that happens, our senators will comport themselves with utmost civility (walang babuyan) – and with none of the servitude to Malacañang which, alarmingly, has been insidiously creeping into the halls of this supposedly independent legislative branch of our government.

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