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REPRODUCTIVE health (RH) is the latest euphemism for artificial
contraception. It is an issue that has drawn widespread
interest—and controversy. You would expect, say, our senators to
actively participate in the discussions on proposals to make
condoms, intrauterine devices, birth-control pills and similar
devices available to the citizenry as a matter of state policy.
According to a leading opponent of the RH bills,
however, only a handful of senators have taken part in the joint
committee hearings. The senators’ apparent indifference has given
an ex-colleague of theirs good cause to question the propriety and
legality of allowing the process to go any further than it already
has.
Former Sen. Francisco “Kit” Tatad has asked
the Senate to declare null and void all committee hearings on
several RH bills that have been held without the necessary quorum as
defined by the chamber’s own Rules of Procedure.
Tatad, who chairs the Citizens vs. Corruption
Task Force (CCTF), told newsmen Saturday that his proposal could
have far-reaching implications on the processing of bills and
resolutions in the Senate, particularly the RH bills. He had served
as chairman of the Senate rules committee and was majority leader
under five Senate presidents.
In a letter, Tatad called Senate President
Manuel Villar’s attention to the joint hearings on the RH bills,
which the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and Tatad,
an Opus Dei member, are opposing.
Sen. Pia Cayetano, who chairs the health and
demography committee, presided over the joint hearings, which
involved six committees.
All in all, the six committees require 26
members to constitute a quorum—a number bigger than the entire
Senate. However, if every senator is a member of all six committee,
then 4.33—rounded off to five—senators will suffice to
constitute a quorum. That, however, was not the case in the two
meetings of the Cayetano-chaired hearings.
Tatad noted that at the first joint hearing on
May 7, only two senators were present: Rodolfo Biazon and Cayetano.
During the August 11 hearing, where Tatad took part, only three
senators were present at the beginning: Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel
Jr., Panfilo Lacson and Cayetano. They were later joined by Juan
Ponce Enrile.
Tatad cited Rule 22 of the Senate: “One-third
of all the regular members of the committee shall constitute a
quorum but in no case shall it be less than two. The presence of
ex-officio members may be considered in determining the existence of
a quorum. However, the committee may authorize a fewer number of
members to conduct public hearings on bills pending before it or to
gather facts in aid of legislation.”
The health and demography committee alone has 11
regular members, and requires four members to constitute a quorum,
Tatad said. The five other committees are youth, women and family
relations with nine members; finance 17; local government 13; labor,
employment and human resources development 13; and ways and means
15.
Tatad first raised the issue of the proper
application of Senate rules in a letter to Villar on July 28, which
was coursed through Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, who also
chairs the rules committee.
In that letter, Tatad said he, “as serious
student of parliamentary procedure,” wanted to be clarified on the
evolving Senate practice of referring certain resolutions to more
than two committees—and conducting committee hearings with only
two senators present.
He pointed out that this was contrary to Rule
15, which provides that no bill or resolution may be referred to
more than two committees, except when it has an appropriation aspect
or when it has a tax aspect, in which case it shall also be referred
to the ways and means committee.
On the quorum issue, Tatad quoted Rule 22—or
Rule 21 in the old version of the Senate rules. The clause “but in
no case shall it be less than two” simply means that where a
committee of two, three, four or five has a one-third membership
that is less than two, the number shall be rounded off to “two”
to constitute a quorum.
Some committee chairmen, however, have
interpreted this to mean that two senators are sufficient to
constitute a quorum in any committee hearing—regardless of the
size of the committee. As far as Tatad is concerned, this
interpretation is wrong.
On September 1, Tatad sent a second letter where
he pointed out that Villar had failed to reply to his first
communication—in violation of Section 5 (a) of Republic Act 6713,
also known as Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public
Officials and Employees, which obliges the Senate chief to reply to
such communication within 15 working days from receipt.
“I am afraid the 15-working day period
has lapsed, and the law has been violated, Mr. President,” Tatad
said in his second letter to Villar. “However, I am more eager to
see the Senate rule on the issues…especially in light of my
participation in the joint hearings by six Senate committees on the
[RH] bills.”
The Senate’s violation of its own quorum
requirements, said Tatad, “only goes to show how shabbily the
institution has treated it own rules.”
If Tatad’s position is eventually upheld, the
senators would only have themselves to blame for
inflicting—unwittingly or otherwise—a fatal blow on the RH
bills.
dansoy26@yahoo.com
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