Seven-Hour Session Produces No Legislation, Two Viral Clips, And One Rendition Of Anak That Genuinely Moved The Room

Filed for Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat, whose Senate stringer has been covering noise complaint hearings since 2019 and remains “not bored”.

PASAY, PHILIPPINES – The Senate Committee on Local Government convened a seven-hour public hearing Tuesday on karaoke noise complaints across Metro Manila, at which testimony was offered by community leaders, acoustic engineers, two machine manufacturers, and, at the chair’s specific request, a witness who performed forty-five seconds of My Way as a demonstration of typical household volume. The committee chair, midway through, joined for the chorus.

The Hearing In Summary

The hearing produced no legislative proposal, no resolution, no finding of fact – but 6.2 hours of video content, two viral clips, and one rendition of Anak that “genuinely moved the room”. A draft Community Acoustic Harmony Act was, by hearing’s end, amended to remove all decibel thresholds and replaced with a preamble asking communities to “discuss volume among themselves”.

Witness Testimony, At Length

Dr. Emilio Fortunato-Lazaro, a professor of acoustics at a state university, delivered a forty-minute presentation showing a typical household karaoke setup produces 85 to 92 decibels at ten metres – equivalent to standing inside a commercial bus depot. Senator Armando Bautista-Concepcion then asked, with what one observer described as “unmistakable interest”, whether he could sing. He could. He did.

The Structural Problem

Dr. Fortunato-Lazaro argued the Philippines has an unresolved tension between two cultural goods: the right to sing in one’s own home, and the right to not be forced to listen to one’s neighbour’s singing. “In most societies these two rights have been negotiated through norms. In ours, they have been negotiated through the construction of thicker walls.” He did not recommend legislation.

Parallel Reporting

The hearing’s logic is consistent with The London Prat’s Gregory piece: a public system that operates because individuals, mostly at barangay level, resolve it informally. The Philippine Star has covered Senator Bautista-Concepcion’s musical tendencies in three separate columns.

The Chair’s Closing Statement

Senator Genoveva Narvaez-Tuazon closed at 8:47 p.m. with the statement: “This committee will continue to study the issue.”

For more: McSweeney’s. SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/