Senators to make final bid for reconciliation on Monday

All 23 senators hold Monday what Sen. Robert Barbers called "the last chance" of the Senate to regain public trust and confidence.

Sen. Joker Arroyo, on the other hand, said that he has already given up on the present Senate’s ever getting back public esteem.

"The Senate is now hopeless, the tide of public sentiment is irreversible," Arroyo said. "The all-Senate caucus is a ‘plastikan’ caucus," Arroyo said.

Barbers said that the caucus on Monday is the only remaining opportunity for the senators to show the public that they could work in harmony for the common good.

He has expressed exasperation that supposed agreements to break the Senate impasse are readily broken and senators keep on sharpening their swords.

He challenged his colleagues to all resign if they could not stop bickerings and infighting. He said that the resignation should take effect after six months at most after they have passed all priority bills.

Barbers said that the resignation would free billions of pesos that could be channeled into the development projects of local government units.

Opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara, on the other hand, remains confident that public approval of the Senate would go up the moment they have formulated a common legislative agenda and approved them.

He said that the opposition is most willing to do its role, but others must also cooperate.

"We are for a working Senate. We have never been known to be obstructionist, as shown when we were in the opposition during the Ramos administration," Angara said.

He expressed the belief that Barbers called for the mass resignation of senators only out of exasperation.

"The only way to regain public trust and confidence is not by resigning but by cooperating to turn the Senate into a working chamber," he said.

Angara added that it is not legally feasible to effect a mass resignation of senators.

"We will be charged with abandonment of public office," he warned.

He also said that the present Congress is a bicameral one, and the House could not function alone without the Senate.

The all-Senate caucus on Monday will discuss the proposed common legislative agenda, the consideration of three bills approved by the opposition during its June 3-6 caucus, and the joint committee report on the investigation of Sen. Panfilo Lacson and some police officers relating to kidnapping for ransom and drug trafficking.

Meanwhile, Sen. Renato Cayetano warned yesterday that there would be doubts over the legality of the bills approved by both the June 3 to 6 session of the Senate and the Second Regular Session as long as the journals of the June session are not approved by the Senate.

Senate Resolution 391, adopted to end the 57-day impasse in the Senate, tacitly acknowledged the passage of the Chainsaw Act, the Philippine-Hispanic Friendship Day, and the Free Patent Act by the opposition-led session last June 3 to 6.

The resolution embodied the agreement of the majority to approve these bills on third and final reading, without reference at all to the June 3 to 6 session. The agreement tacitly recognized the proceedings that led to the approval of these measures and all the amendments introduced by the opposition.