NEWS
[ Editorial ] Legislators or prosecutors?
Philippine legislators, whether senators or congressmen, are allowed under the law to conduct investigations and inquiries in aid of legislation or to enhance the performance of their basic legislative function and to make necessary laws relevant to the subject of investigation. Legislators, senators especially, have thus been compelling every person they felt they should interrogate to Senate investigations. So absorbed in their investigative prerogative have our senators been that the senate calendar has been laden with investigation schedules and very little time has been left to deliberate on pending bills which is their primary duty.
Meantime, in the process, some senators have frequently humiliated, reprimanded, belittled, degraded and embarrassed many of those they have summoned to the supposedly august hall. The case of Norberto Gonzales was one glaring example.
The Catanduanes DepEd official who believed actors and actresses have the least capability for governance was another. Many others have been emotionally pulverized by arrogant, acid-tongued, irreverent senators who seemed to rule the jungle.
Somehow, the Senate has acquired the notoriety of a kangaroo court, and has become a venue for caprices and grandstanding. It has been acting more than a legitimate judicial court which does not dehumanize an accused, however overwhelming the evidence of guilt against him.
Equally distressing is the revelation by Manila media that in the last two years the Senate has passed only nine bills into law while hundreds of vital and urgent bills remained untouched by senators so enamored, so excited with their investigative power. People have been asking that if investigations are being made in aid of legislation, what laws have been passed as a result of Senate investigations since July 2004?
Those who once looked up to the Senate as a bastion of maturity, judiciousness and wisdom are now experiencing excruciating frustration. They are seeing ruthless prosecutors, if not persecutors, in some overacting senators.
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