EDITORIAL — Moving on

With Sen. Joel Villanueva showing up as he promised and providing the 13th vote to elect a new Senate president and reorganize the positions in the chamber, the special session of Congress went into full swing yesterday.

Several members of the new minority attended the hearing of the Commission on Appointments and tackled bills at the plenary. They picked Alan Peter Cayetano as their new minority leader although he was a no-show at the Senate yesterday along with Robinhood Padilla, staunch defender of their wanted colleague, Ronald dela Rosa.

Except for another argument between Senators Panfilo Lacson and Rodante Marcoleta over military promotions, the atmosphere between members of the two blocs was generally civil. Some of them from both blocs talked of “moving on” and even “healing.”

Moving on and healing will be better if sticky issues are resolved. The tumult began with the emergence of Dela Rosa from six months of hiding to provide enough votes to unseat Vicente Sotto III and replace him with Cayetano as Senate president.

This was on May 11. Just three weeks later, on June 3, Sen. Francis Escudero switched to the then minority, creating a quorum of 12 to declare all positions in the chamber vacant, including that of the Senate president.

Cayetano has a pending petition with the Supreme Court, challenging the validity of that quorum that was based on 22 senators excluding Dela Rosa and Jinggoy Estrada, who is held without bail for plunder. Whether the SC will still rule on this specific issue or consider the petition moot and academic remains to be seen.

The Senate now has a committee on rules, which should craft internal rules governing members who go on prolonged absence but continue to receive full pay.

For seven months now since he went into hiding, Dela Rosa has been receiving P300,000 a month in basic salary on top of his monthly police pension of about the same amount, with taxpayers spending millions for the maintenance of his Senate office that is reportedly packed with 10 of his relatives. At the House of Representatives, members have been suspended and expelled for lesser offenses.

The nation also has to know the full story behind the unprecedented eruption of gunfire at the Senate as Dela Rosa made his way back to life on the run, with the help of Padilla.

Once these issues have been resolved, moving on will be easier, for both the Senate and the nation.