Miriam wants use of electronic gadgets in Senate regulated

MANILA, Philippines - A number of legislators here and abroad have lately been caught playing games on their phones and tablet computers while congressional hearings are taking place.

Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile was photographed playing Bejeweled on his iPad Mini during the hearing on the sex-for-flight issue, while US Senator John McCain was seen playing poker on his iPhone during the debate on sending American troops to Syria.

Some may find it cute that the 89-year-old Enrile and the 77-year-old McCain were embracing technology and having some fun with it, but Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago saw nothing amusing in such behavior of elected officials.

“These gadgets can cause disruption and distraction during sessions and committee hearings. Impairing decorum due to their abuse and misuse can be considered unparliamentary acts,” Santiago said in a statement issued yesterday.

Santiago, who has been in a long-running feud with Enrile, has filed a resolution calling for a revision and update of the rules on decorum of the members of the Senate and its guests. The guidelines were on the use of electronic devices during plenary sessions and committee hearings.

Santiago has on a number of occasions lost her temper when mobile phones rang when she was in the middle of conducting her hearings.

In one instance, she even ordered the person responsible for the ringing phone to get out of the committee room.

The Senate has indirectly been trying to encourage the use of electronic gadgets by its members with its initiative to go paperless as much as possible.

For instance, the daily agenda and reference of business for the plenary sessions are now emailed to the senators and even the Senate media instead of printing these out.

For those with tablets and smartphones, they can access the agenda and the reference of business on these devices, otherwise they could just look at two large screens in front of the session hall where the same information are projected.

Santiago, while heeding the call of her colleagues toward a “paperless” Senate, asked for an immediate discussion to amend the Senate rules on the scope and limitations of the use of electronic and mobile devices by its members.

“The Senate Rules should accommodate for the technologically determined changes in society, in this case the prevalent use of gadgets in everyday life. Despite troubling times for the Senate as an institution, it should always maintain and observe a level of decorum this high office deserves,” Santiago said.

She noted a global trend of legislatures changing their internal rules to prohibit or limit the use of hand-held electronic devices in their chambers.

The French National Assembly, for example, allows the use of these devices in their chambers except during debates.

In Ireland and Greece, their legislatures do not allow electronic devices in their plenary hall.

New Zealand’s legislative chamber prohibits the use of mobile phones, and the one in Finland prohibits laptop computers.

Other legislatures, like the United States House of Representatives and the Parliament of United Kingdom, allow the use of electronic and mobile devices as long as they do not impair decorum.