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NOW that Koko Pimentel has filed his election protest
against Sen. Migz Zubiri before the Senate Electoral Tribunal, the
immediate question that comes to mind is: will Migz get a fair shake
from the opposition senators who will sit as SET members?
Migz edged out Koko by 19,292
votes, according to the official count of the Commission on
Elections. Koko claimed that he was cheated, especially in
Maguindanao province where Migz got 98.45 percent of the votes cast
and counted. The opposition senators have openly supported Koko’s
claim that he had been cheated. In fact, Koko is often introduced in
opposition gatherings as the “real” winner and that Migz was
just “‘Comelected,’ not elected.”
It became evident that Koko would
go to the SET after Migz got proclaimed. But even before the
proclamation, opposition senators have already expressed their
belief that Koko got cheated. Now, can they vote otherwise at the
SET should the evidence contradict this belief? I certainly wish
they had not talked about this case since they would be sitting as
judges but that is now purely academic.
The SET will have as members four
majority and two minority senators and five associate justices of
the Supreme Court. The two minority senators at the SET will
definitely be opposition senators. However, the opposition might get
more representatives should the majority name some of the opposition
to the SET. Opposition senators Jinggoy Estrada, Alan Peter Cayetano
and Chiz Escudero are members of the majority.
Sen. Ping Lacson said that he had
asked Senate Minority Leader Nene Pimentel to nominate him to the
SET. Ping had previously assured Nene that the opposition would
never turn its back on Koko because they believed that Koko had been
cheated.
Ping said he was very angry at
how the election, especially in Maguindanao, had been conducted. At
the same time, he gave assurances that he would go by the evidence,
should he become a member of the SET.
“I will show to everybody that
I am not biased,” he said. “I want to see what really happened
in Maguindanao,” Ping said.
Actually, the count in
Maguindanao is not the only one contested by Koko. His protest
involves the votes in 22 Maguindanao towns, seven in Lanao del Norte,
three in Sharif Kabunsuan, two in Basilan, two in Sultan Kidarat,
four in Lanao del Sur and four in Sulu, with total votes of 391,080.
Incidentally, Migz said he might
also file a counterprotest as he claimed that there were areas where
he “unbelievably lost.” He did not identify these areas,
however.
The House and the Senate are now
concentrating on the organization of standing committees. The
committees are the supposed workhorses of the legislature, and their
organization is needed for the bills and resolutions to start
moving.
There are so much hues and cries
over committee assignment at the start of every Congress. In the
Thirteenth Congress, the House was able to complete committee
assignments only in September 2004, or two months after its
inaugural session, because of the conflict between Lakas and Kampi.
At the Senate, the committees were fully organized in August 2004,
or more than one month after the Thirteenth Congress was convened.
It riles me that some senators
would fight tooth-and-nail to get some committees, only to do
nothing after getting their wish. In the Thirteenth Congress, for
instance, very few senators attended committee hearings. Very often,
committee hearings proceeded without the chairmen, with just two
senators in attendance. Later, one of the two would sneak out,
leaving the presiding officer the only senator at the hearing.
One particular committee chairman
was seen a number of times on television pushing for a certain piece
of legislation. I got a copy of the committee hearings on that
measure and I was appalled to learn that that chairman had not
attended even a single hearing! Oh well, this senator is seen more
often on television than on the floor, anyway.
Some senators did not even get to
sponsor any measure on the floor in the Thirteenth Congress, which
speaks volumes of their laziness. Or is it lack of self-confidence?
Bill sponsors should research well on the measure because they are
certain to be asked tough questions by the intellectual giants and
legal eagles in the Senate. Sometimes, not just tough questions but
outlandish ones as well, were asked on the floor. Senators who doubt
their ability to defend measures take the easy way out.
efrendanao2003@yahoo.com
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