Resolution 247 cites lawmakers’ extraordinary restraint in passing no legislation during period of maximum national crisis as model of constitutional governance

Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat

PASAY CITY, PHILIPPINES — The Philippine Senate voted seventeen to four Monday to approve Senate Resolution 247, formally commending the Senate as a body for what the resolution describes as its “extraordinary legislative discipline, constitutional fortitude, and selfless commitment to the principle that a law not passed cannot be blamed on anyone” during a six-month period in which inflation reached a fourteen-year high, two typhoons caused P40 billion in infrastructure damage, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue missed its revenue target by P180 billion.

The Resolution

Senate Resolution 247, authored by Senator Rodrigo Macaraeg-Villarreal and co-authored by eleven colleagues, notes in its whereas clauses that the Senate successfully convened for thirty-eight regular session days during the period under review, that attendance averaged 68 percent per session, and that the chamber produced four resolutions, two of which commended other government bodies for their performance and one of which expressed sympathy to the victims of a typhoon the fourth identified as a matter of continuing concern without specifying what that concern was or what should be done about it.

“In a time of crisis,” Senator Macaraeg-Villarreal told his colleagues before the vote, “the worst thing a legislature can do is act rashly. We did not act rashly. We barely acted at all. History will vindicate our patience.”

Four dissenting senators attempted to amend the resolution to add a clause acknowledging that the chamber had also failed to pass the proposed Emergency Economic Relief Act, the amended Public Health Emergency Response Framework, and seventeen other priority bills currently aging in committee. The amendment was ruled out of order on the grounds that it introduced negative content into a commendation resolution, which the Senate President said was “procedurally inconsistent with the spirit of self-praise.”

A History of Legislative Distinction

Senate Resolution 247 is the fourth self-commendation resolution the chamber has passed in the past three years, a record that Senate historians note is unprecedented in the institution’s history, which dates to 1916. Previous resolutions commended the Senate for its handling of the pandemic response period, its management of the 2022 election season, and what Senate Resolution 198 called its “exemplary performance in the area of deliberative restraint” during a budget season in which three agencies ran out of funds before the fiscal year ended.

“The Senate is an institution that takes its own performance very seriously,” noted Dr. Corazon Almonte-Reyes, Professor of Political Science at De La Salle University. “It is perhaps the only institution in the Philippines that evaluates its performance exclusively by its own stated criteria, produces its own report card, grades itself, and then passes a resolution congratulating itself on its grades. This is a governance model that has no obvious international precedent.”

The Manila Times editorial board noted that the period covered by Resolution 247 included the highest recorded food inflation in fourteen years, which affected an estimated 4.2 million food-insecure households, and asked whether the Senate might consider directing some of its commendatory energy toward those households rather than itself. The Senate has not responded to this suggestion, which was published eleven days ago.

The Four Dissenting Senators

The four senators who voted against the resolution — Senators Cruz-Bautista, Reyes-Montaño, Dizon, and Aquino-Yap — issued a joint statement saying they “respected the Senate’s right to commend itself” but believed the timing was “suboptimal” given current economic conditions and that perhaps the chamber might consider a brief pause in self-congratulation until at least one of the seventeen pending priority bills received a committee hearing.

Senator Macaraeg-Villarreal responded that the dissenting senators were “entitled to their negativity” and that their opposition to recognizing the Senate’s achievements was “frankly a little rude.” He added that he was exploring the possibility of a fifth commendation resolution specifically addressing the Senate’s grace under criticism, and that he expected it to pass comfortably.

What Happens Next

The resolution will be transmitted to the House of Representatives, where Speaker Ricardo Florentino-Guevarra said he looked forward to reading it and that the House was itself considering a similar self-commendation measure for the lower chamber, which he said had been “equally disciplined in its approach to not passing things during difficult times.”

The seventeen pending priority bills remain in committee. The Emergency Economic Relief Act has now been pending for eleven months. Its author, Senator Cruz-Bautista, said she remained optimistic that it would eventually receive a hearing, noting that the Senate had now proven it was capable of acting swiftly when properly motivated, citing as evidence the forty-five minutes it took Resolution 247 to move from introduction to passage. She said she hoped that energy could eventually be directed outward.

“The nation is waiting,” she said. The chamber, having commended itself, had already adjourned.

Opposition senators who voted against the resolution said the chamber’s self-commendation culture had become “a substitute for governance” and that the energy devoted to drafting, debating, and passing resolutions praising the Senate’s own performance could more productively be directed at passing legislation. They noted that the seventeen pending priority bills had between them accumulated 340 committee hearing referrals without a single one reaching a floor vote, a record that in most legislative systems would be considered underperformance but which Resolution 247’s text explicitly reframes as “disciplined deliberation.” The Senate President said he was open to discussing the framing at a future session date to be announced, and that he appreciated the constructive engagement, and that if the opposition felt strongly they were welcome to draft a resolution saying so, which the chamber would consider on its merits in due course.

Covering Philippine governance from The London Prat and Bohiney Magazine.

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SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/philippine-senate-passes-resolution-commending-itself-for-doing-nothing/