An exercise in futility

If the travesty that was perpetrated last Tuesday in those House hearings on the alleged Garci tapes is any indication of where this whole thing is going, those who argue that our Congress has degenerated into a congregation of cacophonous comedians are getting loads of evidence for their stand.

So much radio and television air time wasted, so much of the people’s scarce resources expended just to give blabophiliac, publicity-hungry legislators their 15 minutes of dubious fame. So much hot air let loose in endless, irritating disputation on trivial procedure about which none of us gives much of a damn.

I knew we were in trouble when it was disclosed that 60 committee members had lined up for a 3-minute go at the witnesses. I saw more trouble developing when it was clear the interrogators were using every trick in the book to stretch their moment in time. (Mr.Chair, the question of the distinguished gentleman from Tawi-Tawi should not be deducted from my time. Mr. Chair, the time the witness takes to answer my brief and simple question is not chargeable to my 3-minutes.)

The acuity with which non-deductions from allotted times were asserted did not detract one bit from the essential vacuity of the debates on the scope of the hearings, the proper characterization of the witnesses (Mr. Chair, the gentlemen before us should not be referred to as witnesses, but as resource persons.), and the order in which the congressmen would be allowed to take their turns at bat. I mean, does anyone really care? Let’s get going already.

Not that the issues brought up by some congressmen identified with the majority are not important to them. All that bellowing about why the hearings are being held in the main session hall rather than in committee rooms appears to reflect the grave institutional urgency some solons feel about this. After all, as one Representative earnestly argued, mustering as much gravitas as he was capable of, the session hall is the "soul" of the House.

This indicates, I suppose, that the committee rooms are mere diseased appendages or calloused toes, appropriate for proceedings of less moment than all the congressmen sitting together in the historic business of law-making. How dare the five House committees sully that hallowed ground with something as unworthy as an investigation of the alleged Garci tapes.

And dig that interminable argument about the order in which 60 distinguished representatives of the sovereign people would ask questions of the witnesses or resource persons or, what the heck, just plain guests. I gather from that absorbing intellectual discourse all of us were treated to that the bone of contention was whether the rule would be first come, first served or, more accurately, the sequence of lawmakers asking questions would follow the order in which each arrives at the session hall.

In other words, regardless of their relative position in the list of 60 congressmen who have indicated a desire to interrogate the wit . . . ,er, House guests, priority would be given to those who report for work earlier than others. The later one arrives, the lower one sinks in the order of those who would be recognized.

This procedural rule apparently offended the sense of justice and propriety of some of our honorable legislators. They insisted that the position one occupied in the list should be deemed sacrosanct and may not be surrendered by the small and insignificant circumstance that one decides to sleep all morning. They also serve, they pontificated, who sleep and take forever to do the job they are paid to do.

At any rate, the interrogation of Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Toting Bunye finally got off the ground, and occasionally ground to a halt with the congressmen reduced to arguing about some procedural point. It was fortunate that at least some interesting information was derived from the questions of Rep. Roilo Golez, on the alleged source of the tapes Bunye presented before Malacañang reporters, and of Rep. Teodoro Locsin, on the circumstances attending Bunye’s playing of those tapes in the presence of the aforesaid reporters.

The other congresspersons, during their turn in the limelight, were markedly self-conscious, self-serving and clearly performing in aid of political ambition or self-preservation. They clearly enjoyed trying to skewer Bunye who, for his part, did everything he could to look calm and collected.

In the verbal melee, National Bureau of Investigation Director Wykes Wycoco was asked to rise and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Then he was kind of forgotten and not further bothered with a question.

That was Tuesday and now I’m watching the resumption of the hearing, even as I endeavor to make the deadline for this column. Probably in reaction to media comment that public opinion on the House’s previous hearing was, in the main, negative, the congressmen seem to be on marginally better behavior.

Some are using their allotted times more profitably. Others are asking perfunctory or repetitive questions. Many lawyer-congressmen, a lethal combination, are arguing with lawyer Bunye about who comes from the better law school. Fortunately, the latter isn’t taking the bait.

Are we any closer to the truth? Is anyone being exposed as a liar, a dissembler or one engaged in a cover-up? The jury is still out on these questions. It would seem, in fact, that aside from the witnesses or resource persons that have been or will be called to testify, it is Congress itself that is on trial.