15 senators seek to hold session, hearings through teleconference
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 6:24 p.m.) — Fifteen senators sought to amend their rules on the conduct of sessions following extension of enhanced community quarantine in this time of COVID-19 pandemic.
“The imposition and extension of an Enhanced Community Quarantine in the National Capital Region and specified provinces, until [May 15, 2020], and its attendant limitations should not prevent Congress from exercising its Constitutional mandate to enact last and authorize appropriations,” Resolution 372 reads.
The Senate is set to resume its session on May 4.
The Senate and the House have already held a special session via teleconferencing, when Congress approved a bill giving President Rodrigo Duterte emergency powers, including the power to realign the national budget, to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
LOOK: 15 senators sign resolution seeking to amend Senate rules to dispense with physical presence of lawmakers in sessions, and allow use of teleconferencing or other technology in holding legislative proceedings. Congress is set to resume session on May 4. | via @PaoloSRomero pic.twitter.com/WsbAJvN6H6
— Philstar.com (@PhilstarNews) April 27, 2020
The new resolution seeks to allow the conduct of committee meetings or hearings “through teleconference, video conference or other reliable forms or remote or electronic means, using appropriate information and communications technology systems in case when there is force majeure or occurrence of an emergency which may prevent the senators from physically attending the committee meetings or hearings.”
In the resolution, it is proposed that the Senate president, after consulting with the leaders of the majority and of the minority:
- may postpone the session or,
- with the consent from the House of Representatives, “convene and hold the session through teleconference, video conference, or other reliable forms of remote electronic means.
The secretary of the Senate shall recommend the information and technology system and set it up after the Senate president approves it.
The secretary of the Senate shall also be tasked to provide relevant safety measures “to protect the integrity of the plenary session and committee hearings, the security and reliability of the technology used, and the proper archiving of the audio-visual or electronic recording of the sessions and hearings as part of the records of the Senate.”
The following senators signed the resolution:
- Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto
- Majority Leader. Juan Miguel Zubiri
- Minority Leader Franklin Drilon
- Sen. Sonny Angara
- Sen. Nancy Binay
- Sen. Pia Cayetano
- Sen. Lito Lapid
- Sen. Imee Marcos
- Sen. Manny Pacquiao
- Sen. Grace Poe
- Sen. Bong Revilla
- Sen. Joel Villanueva
- Sen. Cynthia Villar
The Senate had previously considered allowing senators to attend legislative sessions remotely, with Drilon and Lacson proposing in July 2019 to allow detained Sen. Leila De Lima, who is in police custody over drug charges that she says are politically motivated, to join via teleconference.
"Her being behind bars, on charges she has not been convicted yet, should not be a bar in the performance of her duties, especially the aspect which, thanks to technology, can be rendered remotely," Recto said in August of that year.
RELATED: ‘Special treatment’: Revilla slams proposal to let De Lima join sessions
— Kristine Joy Patag with report from The STAR/Paolo Romero
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