Where was Trillanes during the SONA?
The senator from Bicol was reportedly abroad (most probably at government expense) when President Duterte delivered his SONA last Monday. Perhaps hoping that after the SONA, his colleagues in the august body would forget his unparliamentary indiscretion calling the Senate a rubber stamp of Malacañan.
Trillanes, defeated vice-presidential candidate, and formerly jailed for staging a failed coup, may face a case that may be filed by a fellow senator JV Ejercito before the Senate Ethics Committee. If found guilty, and with enough affirmative votes, Trillanes may face suspension at the very least, or even expulsion at the most. There are many things that parliamentary protocols forbid a member of the Senate from saying. Like calling the Senate a rubber stamp of Malacañan. Even if there is some grain of truth to it, a gentleman should never say it. Anyway, the people are in the know. Today, we have legislators who may not deserve their seats in the chamber.
The caliber of senators that I used to know and held in high esteem were in the level of Jose Diokno, Lorenzo Tañada, Jovito Salonga, Arturo Tolentino, Francisco Rodrigo, Ambrosio Padilla, Geronima Pecson, Maria Kalaw Katigbak, Eva Estrada Kalaw, Helena Benitez, Letecia Ramos-Shahani, and Santanina Rasul. I used to be awed when I read the learned privilege speeches of Claro M. Recto, Jose P. Laurel, the Cebu's own Sotto brothers Don Filemon and Don Vicente, and the likes of Camilo Osias, who upheld the dignity of the Senate. The senators before debated on matters of principle and never used foul language or unparliamentary remarks like calling the Upper House a rubber stamp of the Palace.
The Senate today is never at par with the Senate of the good old days. It started when TV and movie personalities, second-rate actors, announcers, and news reporters ran and won merely on the basis of their popularity. Some of them still shuttle from their noontime comedy shows to their senate plenary and committee sessions. They are either retired military or police officers, ageing boxers, basketball players, or broadcasters. Well, I don't mean to insult non-lawyers who want to be lawmakers. But at least, they should study law and watch their tongues before they open their mouths. They are supposed to be lawmakers and yet they come into that body with nothing to bring into the senate floors and nothing to offer but their propensity to investigate all things. In their fixation to always be in the limelight, they make off-the-cuff comments that make the chamber look like a house of clowns and jokers.
The president is the titular head of the super-coalition. If some members of the legislative would take a cue from the overall thrust of the administration, does that make the entire Senate a rubber stamp? There is even such thing as a LEDAC, which is a mechanism of coordination between Malacañan and the legislators. There is a need to coordinate the directions of legislative policies and their execution. The principles of separation of powers and checks and balances are not intended to foment a perpetual rivalry between the executive and the legislative. The nation needs a unified direction and not the perpetual bickering between Malacañan and Congress. Perhaps it is time for legislators to go back to the books and learn the basics. The people deserve no less.
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