Facts, records refute Cruz’s portrayal of a ‘nonperforming’ Congress
HIS IS in response to Neal Cruz’s Jan. 29 column titled “P32.5B for just one law in 2013.” Cruz quotes election lawyer Romulo Macalintal on the supposed inactivity of the Senate, along with the House of Representatives. Painting the 16th Congress as dormant and ineffectual, the column claims that taxpayers “spent P35.2 billion last year for just one insignificant law—the one-page Republic Act No. 10632, which suspended the 2013 Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.” The facts and a review of the Philippine legislative process greatly differ from Cruz’s claims.
From the start of the 16th Congress in June 2013—a short period of seven months—2,074 bills have been filed in the Senate. Of these the senators have acted on 35 in various stages of legislation and have adopted 25 resolutions, along with two concurrent ones. Anyone familiar will acknowledge the rigors of the process of legislation—each bill going through multiple committee hearings, floor debates and other subsequent legislative actions.
While Cruz makes it appear that Congress has passed only one law, the Senate has actually passed four: the 2014 national budget (RA 10633); the P14.6 billion supplemental budget (SBN 1938), the extension of the validity of the 2013 calamity funds, and the aforementioned suspension of the SK elections (RA 10632). In doing so, it has actually outpaced the performance of the Senate in the previous 15th Congress.
Cruz dismisses the passing of the 2014 national budget, the most detailed budget proposal in Philippine history, by referring to it as a routine “obligation.” But he ignores the actual gravity of the budgetary process, a four-month long series of intensive hearings involving inputs from all government agencies, many of which lasted up to midnight. Such a view also disregards the P117.8 billion urgently appropriated by Congress for disaster-stricken parts of the country, thus belittles the needs of thousands of Filipinos who now rely on government assistance.
What must now be made clear is that the Senate’s constitutional mandate does not cover the passage of bills alone. Recent Senate investigations on issues of phenomenal importance, such as the sexfor-flight scandal, the case of abused househelp Bonita Baran, the P10-billion pork barrel scam and the operation of rice-smuggling cartels in the country, have not only brought public interest to these issues to unprecedented levels; they have also instigated much-needed and lasting changes in national policy.
The more Cruz’s accusations fall flat when Senate activities in recent years are taken into account. The previous 15th Congress enacted several landmark laws addressing different major reforms that the Aquino administration has committed to, namely: the Sin Tax Reform Act (RA 10351), the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law (RA 10354), the Enhanced Basic Education Act (RA 10533), the Anti-Money Laundering Act (RA 10365) and the Expanded Anti-Human Trafficking Law (RA 10364). These were all accomplished even as the Senate was dealing with a slew of constitutionally mandated commitments, such as the historic impeachment trial of then Chief Justice Renato Corona—an impossible feat if our legislators were as lethargic as Cruz assumes.
The legislative achievements and accomplishments cited above show that the senators of the land, as part of the 16th Congress, are far from tabloid caricatures of lethargy and indecisiveness. Even now, I can assure everyone that the Senate is taking action and setting initiatives befitting its status as a highly-esteemed legislative institution of this country.