The walk-out, a constitutional breach

I would have wanted to write today on an aspect of the State of the Nation address of His Excellency, President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III. It was my intention to delve more on the way the president steered clear from his otherwise head-on collision with the Supreme Court on the issue of the Disbursement Acceleration Program. Many of us thought that he would take the opportunity to explain the motion for reconsideration which his office filed in an apparent attempt to convince the court to change its decision.

As we all are aware of, unto the president was heaped all sorts of negative comments when he appeared to have challenged the collective wisdom, not the authority, of the highest tribunal in ruling on the unconstitutionality of certain issues related with the DAP. When in his SONA, he spoke, quite briefly, on his plan to submit a supplemental budget to congress ostensibly to cover matters which he previously funded with the DAP, the president seemed to have listened to the mounting criticisms against him.

Since more learned opinion makers have expressed their minds already on this topic, I have decided to discuss this issue in my Constitutional Law class when the appropriate topic comes up. I am sure that a focused study, by my students, on the constitutional parameters of "savings", we will be enlightened how may a department use such "savings" to augment a perceived deficiency within.

Instead, let me bring your attention to the walkout by some legislators. Also in our study of Constitutional Law, we recognize the importance of the freedom of expression. Certainly, when the citizens of this republic would not desire to listen to the state of the nation by the president, they are acting within their constitutionally guaranteed right. Nothing can compel them to lend an ear to the president. After all, in the extreme exercise of this right, being discourteous is covered.

It looks like the legislators might have missed a constitutional provision that requires the president to address the congress at the opening of its regular session. Says Section 23, Article VII of the 1987 constitution: "The President shall address the Congress at the opening of its regular session." There is no doubt that this provision refers to the SONA. In statutory construction, the employment of the word SHALL makes it mandatory for the president to deliver his SONA. In other words, it is a constitutional duty, not just a privilege, of the president to do the SONA.

To me, if there is a duty on the part of the president to give his SONA, there is likewise a corresponding obligation on the part of congress to listen to him. The constitution says that this SONA is to be delivered to "congress at the opening of its session". The reasons why the chief executive is required to give his address to no other entity but congress are rather manifest. One, the lawmakers must hear the presidential report on the implementation of what congress has legislated on and two, to hear what the president needs to be legislated on.

While the ordinary citizens do not have the obligation to listen to the president's SONA, and therefore, it is within the guaranteed exercise of their freedom of expression to be discourteous to the president by disregarding it, this is not the situation, in the case of the legislators. The members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, by constitutional mandate, are bound to hear the presidential report. So, if some of the lawmakers chose to walk out before President Aquino started his speech, they committed an act which was more than breached elementary courtesy. They violated a solemn duty.

I am pointing this out because the constitution further provides for congress to determine, in its rules, what acts constitute disorderly behavior and the corresponding penalties. Is, for one, failure to do a constitutionally mandated duty, like listening to the SONA, a disorderly conduct? If so, what penalty may be meted against those who walked out before Pres. Aquino gave his address? As they say it in the Tagalog serialized literature, abangan!

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