‘House can order arrest of absent members‘

MEMBERS of the House of Representa tives who are frequently absent from plenary sessions can be arrested so that the House can muster a quorum, a House leader said over the weekend.

House Assistant Majority Leader Sherwin Tugna of Citizen Battle Against Corruption party-list said that under Section 75 of Rule 11 of the House Rules, the members present may compel the attendance of absent members in the absence of a quorum after the roll call.

“I believe that the first option, that is, compelling members to attend by arresting them [ through majority vote of the members present] can be done so that quorum can be reached,” Tugna said in a text message.

Aside from arrest, Tugna said that another option is filing a complaint before the House Committee on Ethics against the chronic absenteeism of his colleagues.

The attendance of the House members has been massively dwindling in the last two weeks because lawmakers are reportedly getting busy making rounds in preparation for the May 2013 elections.

In the last two weeks, the House only able to muster a quorum on Monday, when it approved the K-to12 measure on final reading.

Attendance was at its lowest on Tuesday, November 20 when only 70 lawmakers showed up.

The House needs at least 145 of its members to be present to constitute a quorum and proceed with the deliberations of the pending bills. In the absence of a quorum, a session is adjourned.

Rep. Kimi Cojuangco of Pangasinan province, an author of the Reproductive Health (RH) bill, has already blamed House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales 2nd of Mandaluyong City for the lack of quorum.

Gonzales said that the House leaders are constantly convincing their colleagues to be present, but they can’t resort to threatening.

But for House Majority Leader Janette Garin of Iloilo City, a co-author of the controversial bill, attendance in House sessions is a matter of personal responsibility to the lawmakers.

“The solution is for the pro-RH lawmakers to be able to bring other advocates to the plenary and convince them to maintain a quorum. If that happens, the Majority Leader can police the floor and allow the RH bill to be passed, even in two weeks time,” Garin pointed out.