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Friday, March 29, 2024

Committee

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Provincial folks recognize the “committee” as the Comite de Festejos, which the parish church workers organize to oversee the activities of the annual fiesta. As fiesta celebrations became grander, the “comite” was then subdivided into several components, or sub-committees, such as finance or ways and means, sports (for the youth), for the beauty contest (which has become a “must” these days), for an amateur singing or “talent” contest, for the fireworks, the tarpaulins and banderitas, for practically every logistic, leaving the matter of the procession of the patron saint and the mass to the parish priest and his faithful CWL and Knights of Columbus adherents.

The joint session of the two houses of Congress, incidentally, creates a “welcome committee,” some kind of a special escort team of privileged members assigned to meet the President of the Republic when he goes to the Batasan, and escorts him to the cavernous hall where await the nation’s officialdom to listen to his State of the Nation Address every fourth Monday of July.

Of late, and until the start of the sessions of Congress, the jockeying for committee and sub-committee chairs will be the most grueling work of our legislators and those who would lead the two houses. This is where the best horse-trading skills are demonstrated by the leadership.

You would think from the outside that the task of distributing chairmanships of the “comites” is easier in the House than in the Senate, as there are almost 300 members in Quezon City as against a mere 24 in Pasay. Wrong.

In the first place, what is this fascination for committees all about?

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Well, simple. Chairmanship of a committee is power. Chairmanship is platform for one’s advocacy, one’s special interests. Legislation is done through committee work, as bills are referred for digestion by the appropriate committee before it is sent to the floor for every member of the House to ingest.

Committee chairs are so prized that a father legislator even “bequeaths” the same to a son or wife or brother, in much the same way that because of term limits, elective positions are passed on as a matter of “herencia.”

Recall how in the previous Congresses before the incoming, the Public Works Committee was held for the longest time by Senator Ramon Revilla, and then passed on to his heredero, Senator Bong. Recall, too, how Senator Lito Lapid always got the Games and Amusements Committee of the Senate. Same thing happens in the House, but because there are so many congressmen, their hereditary titles are not as pronounced in the public eye.

There are more committees than there are senators in the Senate. And when “major” legislation is passed, the senators and congressmen create special “oversight” committees to “ensure” that implementation by the executive agencies of their magnum opus of legislation, for example, the Epira that governs our energy industry, is properly done. There is oversight on tax reform, oversight on so many “major” legislative measures. A simple word, to describe the oversight committees is “comite de pakialam.” Pardon the irreverence.

The House has virtually proclaimed a new Speaker in the person of Davao del Norte’s Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez. Even the outgoing Speaker who has held on to the post throughout the last six years has travelled to Davao to proclaim his successor. Now comes the job of distributing the chairs. But Speaker Bebot is doing it superbly, with little “noise,” and everybody is happy—well, almost.

It is to his leadership credit that the humongous Liberal Party has sundered (surrendered is too harsh a term) and most of what was left of it after switching to the new party in town (PDP-Laban) has quietly coalesced. And it has been left to UNA’s Toby Tiangco or Danny Suarez to decide by themselves who wants the distinction of becoming the Minority Floorleader, although the fiery Bicolano veteran, LP’s Edcel Lagman, is supposedly interested as well.

But then again, the speakership’s “control” of the House is stronger than the Senate President’s “hold” on his 24 independent republics. The congressman’s normal be-all and end-all is making his constituents happy. It’s all about his district, it’s share of projects, it’s partaking of the public gravy train, and of course, who gets to be the district engineer.

The Senate is otra cosa. Elected at large by the entire nation, each of the 24 independent republics boasts of a national vote, sometimes exceeding that of the president-elect himself. Por eso, con muchos votos, grandes cabezas.

There are the coveted chairs: Finance, Public Order, Justice, Blue Ribbon, Public Works, Ways and Means, Public Services. There are the special interest committees that cater to instincts “protective” of important industries that are objects of government regulatory powers. There are special advocacies, such as those in Health, Education, Agriculture, Labor, and the like.

Neophyte senators are wont to settle for the “lesser” committees, for a period of learning the ropes, but returning senators (those who hibernated for a few years after serving their two-term limit) are to be treated as seniors as well.

Navigating through these committee chair demands could be a mine pit. If you favor one, you could disfavor another, and thus lose that precious one vote in 24. Very, very tricky.

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III was announced as the presumptive leader of the Senate by no less than the incumbent, Senator Franklin Drilon of the Liberal Party. And likewise by Senator Vicente Sotto III of the NPC. The Liberals supported Mar Roxas; the NPC, Grace Poe.

Even as the signals from Davao favored the incoming president’s defeated running mate Senator Alan Cayetano who has three more years left of his mandated term limits, Senator Koko sealed a pact, complete with chairmanships, with the leaders of groups and parties who did not support the president-elect. It’s all about the numbers, after all.

How shall this cozy arrangement sit with the incoming president? How shall the new president see the assumption to committee heads of senators who are likely to block his pet legislative proposals, especially the controversial ones? Or those who would initiate investigations “in aid of legislation” on practically anything they desire? And put his Cabinet members in the Senate’s hot seats?

How will the new president deal with 24 independent republics?

Ah, democracy.

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