Kabataan Party-list Rep. Mong Palatino today urged Speaker Prospero Nograles to open the House of Representatives to victims of typhoon Ondoy.

“It is only logical and the most human thing to do during this time of relief and rescue operations. Why is Speaker Nograles resisting calls to open the gates of Batasan when it is closest to typhoon-stricken areas? Is this not the House of the People?” Palatino said.

The sprawling Batasang Pambansa is nearest to Marikina, San Mateo, Rizal, Commonwealth and other areas in Quezon City which were hit hardest by typhoon Ondoy’s fury.

The young solon said that he was frustrated to observe that the general atmosphere in Congress was “business as usual,” even noting that while others are busy with relief and rescue operations, the House leadership even chose to push through with the semi-finals for the annual “HREP Idol,” a singing competition for House staff and employees, yesterday.

“How can the House leadership stomach this when just a stone’s throw away a basketball court in San Mateo, Rizal is teeming with evacuees and dead bodies?” he said.

Palatino urged the House leadership to “at least set up a relief operations area or even a hotline for rescue operations in the House premises.”

Palatino also scored Nograles for citing “security risks” amid the ongoing budget hearings as a reason for rejecting calls to open the House. “How infuriating that some still think of their own inconvenience at a time such as this,” he said.

Re-channel debt-servicing funds in lieu of seeking int’l aid

“The irony is while the NDCC and the national government is begging for international aid, the proposed 2010 national budget proposes to earmark P696 billion, mainly for debt-servicing, while 22.1 percent of the total budget will automatically go to interest payments alone,” he said.

Palatino pointed out that only P2 billion in the proposed budget would be allotted for calamity funds.

“Re-channel debt-servicing funds to calamity funds and we won’t have to just sit back and be at the mercy of international aid,” Palatino said. ###

Kabataan Party-list together with other youth and student groups nationwide are conducting ongoing relief and volunteer operations through Tulong Kabataan (http://kabataanpartylist.com/blog/ondoy/)