Marcos chastises Senate leadership: ‘Get back to work’

MANILA, Philippines — The unimaginable in Congress has happened, as far as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is concerned: a Senate majority making up its own rules and the august body turning into anything but.

“Get back to work. Because it’s important — ang dami nating kailangang gawin (we have so many things we need to do),” a visibly frustrated Marcos said in a chance interview with reporters on the sidelines of an event with presidential scholars, Wednesday, June 3, when asked about the latest developments at the upper chamber.

Marcos criticized the Senate leadership for plunging the legislature into “disarray” after the majority bloc led by Senator President Alan Peter Cayetano continued to refuse to attend plenary sessions where laws are deliberated on and passed, and confirmations for presidential appointments are supposed to be approved. 

“The best description I can have is that the legislature is now in disarray. But that is exactly the opposite from what we are trying to achieve,” Marcos

“We are trying to achieve some form of stability so that people can get on with their lives, so that people can plan ahead for their future, so that people can count on the assistance of government during this time of an emergency. We cannot do that if the legislature decides to stay at home and have a vacation. That is anathema to everything that governance is about,” he added.

The latest impasse at the Senate — in which 11 minority members have been showing up before the session hall in their lonesome — is the latest in a list of unprecedented events in the upper chamber since Alan Peter Cayetano was installed as Senate president on May 11.

Cayetano’s actions, which minority senators call a “dereliction of duty,” prompted the minority bloc to call for his resignation.

Rappler Recap: Senate majority skips session again; minority seeks Cayetano’s resignation

“I’m afraid all these events that we have been witnessing has, through the Senate and its leadership, [put] the whole Senate into disarray. It has discredited the leadership and it has stopped the essential business of legislation and government,” Marcos said.

He added: “The other departments continue to work. The Executive continues to work. The Judiciary continues to work. Why does the Legislature decide to stop working? I don’t understand that. I talked to my fellow senators at the time I was senator, and we cannot figure out. Bakit nagkaganito? Paano tayo napunta rito (How did it come to this? How did we get here)?”

The Senate needs to have majority in attendance, or at least 13 of its members, to have a quorum and hold session. 

Since Cayetano took the Senate’s helm on May 11, unprecedented events took place at the Senate premises: a shooting incident involving Senate security and the National Bureau of Investigation, the escape of International Criminal Court (ICC)-wanted Senator Ronald dela Rosa even while under supposed “protective custody” of the upper chamber, and the majority’s attempt to amend rules that would allow senators to vote through video conferencing. 

At the core of all this is the deepening and intensifying political schism in the Philippines between two clans and factions — Marcos and his 2022 running mate Vice President Sara Duterte — that used to be bound by a delicate alliance. Cayetano, former president Rodrigo Duterte’s  losing vice presidential bet in the 2016 race, leads a majority coalition with close political and personal ties to the Duterte clan. 

What happened to the Senate rules?

Marcos, who has held posts in both legislative chambers, told the Senate to “get back to work,” citing necessary legislation including a possible supplemental budget in response to disruptions and hardships caused by the global oil crisis.

Cayetano, who has led the majority in skipping Senate sessions and has instead turned to Facebook live to make his announcements, claimed the dwindling majority was using congressional rules to ensure that the minority bloc is unable to “grab” leadership of committees and stop the Senate blue ribbon hearing on flood control corruption on June 4. 

But Marcos said that the Senate cannot just make up its own rules in cancelling session. “Dahil ang pagkaintindi ko is that…ang rules diyan, bago ka mag-cancel ng session (My understanding is that based on the rules, before you cancel session), you have to inform the other house three days before you cancel a session, and there has to be a very good reason for cancelling a session,” he said. 

He questioned the initial reason for canceling the session on June 1, which was for the majority senators to show support for Senator Jinggoy Estrada following his arrest for plunder and graft charges linked to flood control corruption.

“I don’t think na ihahatid mo ang isang senador para pumunta kung saan siya pupunta, hindi yata sapat na dahilan yan para i-cancel ang isang session. Isang session lang yon, ngayon kanselado na naman ang isang session. Hindi ko maintindihan kung paano sila magtatrabaho kung ganito,” he added. 

(I don’t think needing to bring a senator to wherever he is going, that’s not a good enough reason to cancel session. That’s one session and now they’ve canceled another session. I do not understand how they intend to work if this is happening)

Marcos said the executive was “examining all our options” while clarifying that solutions would ultimately need the “cooperation and the commitment of the Senate leadership to continue with their work.” The Senate and the House of Representatives make up the legislative branch of government, which is co-equal to the executive. 

“We cannot tell them what to do; we cannot punish them for what they are doing. They have to regulate themselves. And they haven’t been doing much of a good job right now,” he added.

Marcos earlier described the events prior to the session absence of the Cayetano bloc as unimaginable, saying in a May 29 interview with Philippine media in Toyko, Japan, that he “watched in horror” at what the Senate had become. – Rappler.com