A maturity test for our bicameral legislature
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2019 16:13:52 +0000
SOME thought, perhaps foolishly, that the selection of Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano as the temporary speaker of the House of Representatives in the 18th Congress, would pave the way for the smooth passage of the 2020 national budget. They thought this because Cayetano was a senator at one time, who was familiar with the intricacies and politics of the budget process.
This expectation is now proving to be mistaken. Despite the sour experience and agonizing passage of the 2019 budget through the 17th Congress, the signs are rising that the budget process for the 2020 budget will be just as stormy.
Strangely, leaders in both Houses appear now to be spoiling for a fight. One melodramatic senator is even talking about “a fight to the death.” House leaders, in turn, have moved to strike out the insertions made by senators in the proposed budget, and realign them as budgets for the projects of representatives in their districts. They have highlighted the fact that a Filipino senator has no “constituency” to represent in Congress, and therefore he has no business demanding “pork” to be allocated to each senator through insertions.
The current House-Senate struggle over the budget would not have happened, but for the boasting and grandstanding on both sides.
It started when Speaker Cayetano bragged after the House passage of the 2020 budget, that the chamber had passed an appropriations bill that is completely free of pork.
That declaration sent Sen. Panfilo Lacson on a self-appointed mission to examine the budget line by line to find pork allocations or pork disguised as something else.
The senator has claimed that, based on his House informants, the other chamber plans to allocate P1.5 billion each for the 22 House deputy speakers.
He has also claimed that one of his House critics, Rep. Fredenil Castro, is lobbying for a P258-million project in Capiz.
Where is this thing headed?
Will it end in the death of lawmakers, as Senator Lacson implied? Ironically, this will probably be welcomed by most Filipino citizens, because they find their senators and representatives too costly and wasteful.
We believe that it will be best for all lawmakers to remember that in our constitutional system, the House and the Senate are ordained to function together as one bicameral legislature — two Houses under one roof.
We adopted bicameralism from America’s experience of constitutional democracy.
The two chambers are designed to be a restraint on each other, and to strengthen the principle of checks and balances.
The American charter framers hoped that the smaller and more elite Senate, manned by experienced and older statesmen, would “cool the passions” of the people’s representatives in the House.
The two Houses are equal in their overall power, both can initiate legislation (although tax bills must originate in the House), and both must pass every bill in identical form before it can be signed by the President to become law.
Instead of functioning in this constitutional vision of cooperation, our House and Senate today are effectively stalemating each other. Neither can move forward because of humbug.
In the 2019 budget process, we saw what can happen when some lawmakers are allowed to have their way or do their worst. The operations of government can be severely hampered, and national economic growth can be negatively affected.
It takes maturity and vision for this legislative system to work. What we sadly have are lawmakers who tie up the nation’s business in knots.