It’s high time to abolish the Lower House

We are spending billions every day to subsidize a body composed of family dynasties, inept, incompetent, and many dishonest, abusive and lazy members of a non-performing assembly of the privileged ruling class. It’s time we ask them to account for the billions they have squandered out of poor taxpayers' money and abolish their House once and for all.

With due respect to our Cebu representatives, we have to say that based on empirical data and anecdotal evidence, the most useless body today is the House of Representatives. For a country struggling with poverty we can no longer afford subsidizing no less than P120 million a month per congressman, multiplied by about 300 non-performing, irresponsible, and uncaring servants. What has Congress done to solve unemployment, inflation, housing, education, and public health? Absolutely nothing.

The Philippines has the highest poverty rate and unemployment level in the ASEAN region, it can no longer afford a very inefficient and expensive bicameral legislative body. It is enough we have a Senate which shall pass laws without having to wait for the slow, inept, and circuitous process of bicameral reconciliation. We just have to augment the Senate by increasing its membership to 50 with equal and proportionate regional representation. Under a federal set-up, all provincial board members can constitute themselves as regional assemblies without additional compensation, staff, and consultants.

As of today, each representative has a wide array of technical assistants, political liaison officers, and staff who only do politicking, and an endless roster of consultants without Key Results Areas or Key Performance Indicators. Some do not attend sessions regularly. They just have their attendance entered into the roll and then disappear into their own personal or family business, some using government vehicles, tools, and equipment for personal activities. They claim to be co-authors of important legislative measures by simply affixing their signatures to the work of their more conscientious colleagues.

If there is an independent performance audit of the Lower House, I am sure the people will discover their taxes being spent to fund the salaries, allowances, bonuses, and perks of legislators who have never really legislated. Many of them only filibustering by abusing the oversight functions of “investigations in aid of reelection.” I challenge any member of the House to show his constituents major pieces of legislation with strategic impact and far-reaching effects to alleviate the sufferings of the people. Apart from bills of local application naming some schools in honor of some people, or establishing a branch of a trial court, I have yet to see legislative masterpieces we can be proud of.

If the House is just the breeding ground of some arrogant partylist congressmen who bullies airport underlings, then it’s time to end this expensive, multi-billion white elephant. The people can no longer afford such a worthless luxury.