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Thursday, May 27, 2004
Argument halts Congress session on count rules
MANILA -- A heated exchange between two legislators forced the suspension at 8:46 Wednesday night of a joint Congress session deliberating the rules for the canvassing of votes for president and vice president.
The session was suspended after Maguindanao Rep. Didagen Dilangalen reacted to a note from the audience telling him to "shut up" and stop "wasting taxpayers' money" while he was interpellating Senate Majority Floor Leader Francis Pangilinan.
Deliberations on the canvassing rules, which had gone on for three days already, exasperated the woman who sent the note to Dilangalen.
Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Jose de Venecia moved the debate on the rules for the canvassing of the presidential and vice presidential vote to 2 p.m. Thursday.
The joint session of the Senate and the House was supposed to vote on count rules at 9 p.m. Wednesday so the canvass of votes for president and vice president could start on Thursday.
Opposition lawmakers are opposing the recommendation of their colleagues from the administration to create a 14-member committee to do the canvassing.
The decision to suspend Wednesday's session came about after Dilangalen castigated House Deputy Speaker for the Visayas Raul Gonzales for rejecting the Maguindanao congressman's demand to cite in contempt and incarcerate the spectator from the gallery who told him to shut up.
"Shut up...freedom of expression, Mr. Speaker, shut up," Dilangalen said while showing the note he received from a certain Suzette Pido, who had her daughter Joanna pass the note to the Maguindanao legislator through a congressional page on the floor.
Gonzales reacted by saying, "You shut up." Dilangalen answered by telling Gonzales to "shut up" several times.
The House secretary general ordered Pido and her daughter Joanna to be brought to the office of the sergeant-at-arms but they were later released after Dilangalen's motion to cite them in contempt failed to prosper.
The move made Dilangalen angrier and he lashed out at his colleagues who not only did not support him but also defended the author of the note.
Opposition legislators earlier in the session said the 1987 Constitution mandates that Congress as a whole should do the canvassing and not a smaller body composed of seven senators and seven congressmen as proposed by their colleagues belonging to the administration party.
Administration Sen. Joker Arroyo, however, said the plan of the opposition to file a suit and seek a restraining order from the Supreme Court (SC) to stop the canvassing would not prosper, citing the separation of powers of the judiciary and legislature.
Senator Arroyo also said it will take Congress three months and a half to complete the canvassing if each congressman and senator would be allowed one minute each to scan the 173 certificates of canvass (COCs).
He batted for the creation of the canvassing committee, saying this was done in the 1992 and 1998 elections.
He said Congress in plenary would still approve the results of the canvassing.
But Rep. Francis Escudero of Sorsogon said if there were legal precedence, how come the rules implemented in previous elections were not formalized. If it had been formalized, there would not have been any controversy in the first place.
As a counter proposal, Escudero proposed expanding the membership of the canvassing committee from 14 to 30.
House Speaker de Venecia said in a television interview they are flexible concerning this matter.
Drilon said he hopes that the canvassing would be finished by the first week of June. "I am still looking at a mid-June proclamation," Drilon said.
He expressed optimism that the majority members of both Houses would adopt the rules because these are the same rules used in the 1992 and 1998 presidential elections.
"We will cooperate with the majority in making this canvassing process as orderly as possible," Pimentel, on the other hand, said.
He assured that the opposition would not also tolerate delays to the proclamation of the winning candidates.
(May 27, 2004 issue)
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