Legislation is life

“ It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.” When Michael Corleone rebuked his brother Santino as the family plotted the retaliatory murder of Virgil “the Turk” Solozzo and Capt. McCluskey, he articulated an ethos that confounded generations. We speak here of a dual morality, the clashing thresholds of right and wrong. It should be ok to hurt someone if it benefits you in the end.

This iconic The Godfather line is called to mind by the image of our Senators making nice with their graduating colleagues. Trending are the exchanges between re-elected Senator Nancy Binay and the departing Antonio Trillanes. Senator Ping Lacson’s caption for this lovefest is “camaraderie at its best.” It’s as if the nightmare, extended demolition job carried out by Trillanes, converting the Senate for more than a year into his own personal vendetta platform against her father, Vice President Jojo and her brother, Mayor JunJun, never happened. 

In this context, invoking the walang personalan code is not for Sen. Trillanes to excuse his conduct. Neither is it for us to excuse him for it. Rather it leads us to applaud how Sen. Nancy has chosen to ignore the offense and see it as strictly business. Despite it being made savagely personal by Sonny. 

And then again, it’s possible that she could be channeling Michael Corleone. And this calm at present is just a portent of retribution that could come when least expected. Bada-bing! 

Cinderella man. Senator elect Christopher “Bong” Go continues to electrify his highly pro-PRRD countrymen what with his unapologetic loyalty to the President. Not even the 20 million votes that landed him 3rd in the race could compel him to distance himself from his former Boss. When the clock strikes 12 midnight between June 30 and July 1, the Cinderella Senator will officially have a constituency to answer to. We would expect that he would then start on the next chapter of his story, as his own man. Like he said: “do I look like a rubber stamp?”

How can we begin to look at Sen. Elect Go in a different light when his own colleagues insist on seeing him still as the President’s man? They may think that they’re giving it a positive spin by saying that he provides the Senate with an in-house direct line to Malacanang. I’m sure the Senators meant that this makes for better coordination. After all, the check and balance function of the institution does not necessarily preclude the departments of government working together for just causes. 

But the central design is that the institutions work apart. And when they interact with other branches, they’re supposed to do so as a House. There is even an office created in the Executive department, tasked with promoting Presidential legislative initiatives and administration sponsored priority policy reform. This is the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office. 

Sen. Elect Go has assured that he will be independent. I’m sure that, come July 1, he will avail of the opportunity to show the world. Even PRRD has given him marching orders in this direction. In due time, like his colleagues, he will understand and appreciate that his office as Senator of the land imbues him with a duty to the people and the institution before his loyalty to any person. To the extent that he can reconcile those loyalties, then good for him. And good for us.

Meetings at Manny’s. At the rate these action pacqued caucuses are being hosted at Senator Manny Pacquiao’s mansion, we might as well surrender the increasingly redundant Senate Session Hall. It was in the 1995 to 1998 midterm, during the incumbency of Manong Ernie Maceda as Senate President, that the Upper House transferred from the Executive House (a.k.a. National Museum) to its temporary leased digs at the GSIS building. From Instagram pics and other social media channels, it is clear that our Senators have taken to arriving at decisions in private pow wows, away from the eyes and ears of an interested public. When session opens in July, there shall already have been a pre-determination of who gets to head which committee. So, yes, why don’t we save the people the rental payments to GSIS?

In democratic jurisdictions around the world, most specially in the US where all 50 states including the District of Columbia have them, there are laws that require open meetings. Also known as sunshine laws, they prescribe that proceedings of national and state bodies and regulatory agencies be open to the public. 

The US Constitution does not mandate that meetings be public. In fact the sessions of their Constitutional Convention were held in secret. Nonetheless, in a nod to the people’s sovereignty and in deference to the right to be informed on matters of public concern, States have yielded to the strong lobby of media groups to have their proceedings publicized. This happened in the 1970s.

Obviously, business transpired at the meeting at Manny’s. In the aftermath, committee assignments were announced. And, clearly, the earlier tension on the issue of the Senate Presidency was allayed. Decisions were made at that dining cum conference table and we the sovereign Filipino people weren’t in the room.

The fundamental premise of having open meetings is the link between transparency and the integrity of the process and outcomes. If we are not informed about what our public servants are doing, how could we make decisions on whether or not to have them represent us?

The hallowed halls of the Senate should not be reduced to mere pantomime stages where there is nothing to discuss but results of what was taken up previously, behind closed doors. The greatest deliberative assembly of the Nation with traditions like the no-cloture rule that allows unhampered debate with unanimous consent will be diminished by practices that bypass discussion and emphasize self dealing and horse trading. 

Resist the convenience of legislation by caucus. Take it up in Plenary guys.