As legislative measures seeking to address people’s concerns are now starting to gather dust in Congress shelves, Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond “Mong” Palatino filed Joint Resolution 30 which urges the leadership of both chambers of Congress to extend plenary session days until Thursdays, which would mean “more time to deliberate on socially-important legislation and to push for bills and resolutions that respond to the many diverse issues faced by our countrymen.”

The resolution expressly states that the House of Representatives and the Senate should conduct plenary sessions from Mondays to Thursdays in order to give due time to legislative work, which “remains to be the primary and most important task of legislators.”

At present, plenary sessions are held during Mondays through Wednesdays, with each session day lasting for an average of only three hours.

“I think it’s fair assessment that the present legislative performance leaves much to be desired. Provided with more than enough resources, Congress should step up and be more responsive to the needs of its constituents by devoting more time to more committee hearings and plenary discussions,” the youth legislator said.

He furthered that “the noticeable decrease of appreciation of plenary sessions in the House of Representatives has imperiled the passage of crucial legislation and resulted to missed opportunities for critical and sound debates on proposed measures,” the youth legislator said.

Palatino said it should be easy for both chambers to implement a four-day session week as it clearly stipulated in Rule XI Section 69 of the House rules that “daily sessions shall commence at four o’clock in the afternoon on Mondays through Thursdays and at ten o’clock in the morning on Fridays” while Rule XIV Section 40 of the Senate rules provides that “the Senate shall meet in session at three o’clock in the afternoon on weekdays.”

The youth solon noted there are only 84 session days in the current second regular session calendar as opposed to the 98 days during adjournment.

“Everyday, the Filipino people are burdened by problems arising from the spiralling economic, political, and social crises of our time. Poverty, hunger, joblessness, and decreasing political participation are just few concerns that are addressed by the government either through timeworn solutions or just sheer inaction. On the part of the legislative branch, it is imperative that genuinely responsive and effective policies be institutionalized through the enactment of laws that pinpoint the structural roots of these problems and provide solutions that would benefit the majority. Sadly, there is sound basis to observations that Congress not only appears to be lagging behind but remains an elitist institution incapable of upholding the interests of the oppressed majority,” the activist solon said.

Meanwhile, the resolution is also pushing the leadership of both Houses and concerned Congress offices to regularly publish the attendace records of solons during committee proceedings, as what’s being done in plenary attendance. Palatino said this should make legislators attend committee hearings as “it has also been observed that only few committee meetings are able to muster a quorum.”

“Committee work should be given more importance as it is equally vital to plenary participation. It is during these committee hearings that we hear the position, concerns and comments of concerned stakeholders to legislative proposals. Committee hearings are ripe venues for our citizens to engage our lawmakers on various concerns, a necessary component of democratic politics,” the resolution read.

‘Basic problems of PH educ system to imperil educ reforms’

Kabataan Party-list Representative Raymond “Mong” Palatino today expressed apprehensions on the capability of the K to 12 reform program to improve basic education in the country given that the basic problems of shortages, underfunding, orientation, and access that continue to hound our education system remain unaddressed and wanting of genuine, long-term solutions.

As the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture started deliberating on proposed implementing laws of the K to 12 program, Palatino reminded education officials “not to get too carried away and too preoccupied with the grandiose and ambitious plans of the program while relegating to the sidelines the most basic and essential concerns that continue to beset our teachers, students and other concerned sectors, problems that have actually contributed to the sorry state of education we have today.”

“The K to 12 program envisions to produce graduates with ’21st century skills’ but clearly, we are far from having 21st century facilities essential in achieving suitable learning conditions. The Aquino government has yet to present a convincing program to remedy the existing shortages in the education sector . How can basic education qualitatively function amid these dire shortages? Students cannot properly learn if, in the first place, there are no sufficient classrooms to study in, chairs to seat on, teachers to learn from, and textbooks to read,” Palatino said.

Latest figures from DepEd show the country still needs an additional 50,921 classrooms, 74,178 in teachers, 123,196 toilets, 62.4 million in textbooks and about 1.3 million in classroom chairs.

Despite government declarations that it is giving the education sector the highest priority in its budget, Palatino said the entire allocation for education is stilled pegged at levels insufficient to ensure that every child is able to enjoy his or her right to education. While Unesco estimates that 6 percent of the GDP should be set aside for education, the youth legislator deplores that DepEd only received 2.2 percent of the GDP for the current year.

Furthermore, Palatino said that the teachers, arguably the most important key components in the implementation of the K to 12 program, will not be able to fulfill the demands of the new program if they continue to be plagued by the same old problems such as low pay, delays in release of salaries, lack of benefits, shouldering of classroom operational expenses, and poor working conditions.

Most importantly, the youth solon said “one of the biggest flaws of the K to 12 program is that it is anchored on improving the competencies of in-school youth without addressing the problem of the growing number of out-of-school youths in the country who equally deserve to be in school.” He said: “Perhaps Aquino and his education officials should ask themselves if the K to 12 program will be able to send millions of out-of-school youths to school? Any education reform of the government is doomed to fail if it doesn’t take into account the right of each and every citizen to have access to education and other social services.”

Meanwhile, as the Department of Budget and Management consolidates and prepares the 2013 budget proposal, which will be presented to Congress after President Benigno Aquino III’s state of the nation address on July 23, Palatino enjoined the budget department to consider augmenting the subsidy of state universities and colleges as many of these public higher educational institutions are expected to play a key role in the implementation of K to 12, specifically the provision of the Senior High School program.

“For many years, our SUCs have been receiving not funds but scraps from the national government. Operational budgets yearly receive drastic cuts, while no single amount is earmarked for the construction of new buildings and the improvement of facilities. Now that SUCs are going to play a crucial role in the government’s flagship educational program, perhaps the government can now heed the longstanding demand of various sectors for greater state subsidy to higher education,” Palatino ended. #

As legislative measures seeking to address people’s concerns are now starting to gather dust in Congress shelves, Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond “Mong” Palatino filed Joint Resolution 30 which urges the leadership of both chambers of Congress to extend plenary session days until Thursdays, which would mean “more time to deliberate on socially-important legislation and to push for bills and resolutions that respond to the many diverse issues faced by our countrymen.”

The resolution expressly states that the House of Representatives and the Senate should conduct plenary sessions from Mondays to Thursdays in order to give due time to legislative work, which “remains to be the primary and most important task of legislators.”

At present, plenary sessions are held during Mondays through Wednesdays, with each session day lasting for an average of only three hours.

“I think it’s fair assessment that the present legislative performance leaves much to be desired. Provided with more than enough resources, Congress should step up and be more responsive to the needs of its constituents by devoting more time to more committee hearings and plenary discussions,” the youth legislator said.

He furthered that “the noticeable decrease of appreciation of plenary sessions in the House of Representatives has imperiled the passage of crucial legislation and resulted to missed opportunities for critical and sound debates on proposed measures,” the youth legislator said.

Palatino said it should be easy for both chambers to implement a four-day session week as it clearly stipulated in Rule XI Section 69 of the House rules that “daily sessions shall commence at four o’clock in the afternoon on Mondays through Thursdays and at ten o’clock in the morning on Fridays” while Rule XIV Section 40 of the Senate rules provides that “the Senate shall meet in session at three o’clock in the afternoon on weekdays.”

The youth solon noted there are only 84 session days in the current second regular session calendar as opposed to the 98 days during adjournment.

“Everyday, the Filipino people are burdened by problems arising from the spiralling economic, political, and social crises of our time. Poverty, hunger, joblessness, and decreasing political participation are just few concerns that are addressed by the government either through timeworn solutions or just sheer inaction. On the part of the legislative branch, it is imperative that genuinely responsive and effective policies be institutionalized through the enactment of laws that pinpoint the structural roots of these problems and provide solutions that would benefit the majority. Sadly, there is sound basis to observations that Congress not only appears to be lagging behind but remains an elitist institution incapable of upholding the interests of the oppressed majority,” the activist solon said.

Meanwhile, the resolution is also pushing the leadership of both Houses and concerned Congress offices to regularly publish the attendace records of solons during committee proceedings, as what’s being done in plenary attendance. Palatino said this should make legislators attend committee hearings as “it has also been observed that only few committee meetings are able to muster a quorum.”

“Committee work should be given more importance as it is equally vital to plenary participation. It is during these committee hearings that we hear the position, concerns and comments of concerned stakeholders to legislative proposals. Committee hearings are ripe venues for our citizens to engage our lawmakers on various concerns, a necessary component of democratic politics,” the resolution read.

As classes are set to resume in the next few weeks, Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond “Mong” Palatino today called on President Noynoy Aquino to “act with due haste on the yearly unabated tuition and other fee increases, a major national concern that cannot not be swept under the rug.”

“Every year, the government responds to the clamor for solutions to the high tuition rates and exorbitant school fees through empty promises and excuses. This year, Aquino’s silence and inaction on the issue of the highly commercialized state of education is more pronounced than ever, giving credence to the word ‘noynoying’ coined by activist groups to refer to the President’s plain refusal to address the people’s gut issues,” the youth legislator said.

Almost 300 private higher educational institutions were given the green light to raise their tuition fees for the next school year, excluding miscellaneous fees which are not covered by government regulatory guidelines. Palatino said “the gravity of the school fees problem cannot be based simply on the number of schools raising their tuition, as it has been a deceiving practice of many private schools to forego tuition increases in exchange for the imposition of exrobitant, unjust and redundant miscellaneous fees that the government has no control over.”

“Aquino cannot just claim that concerned agencies are working on the problem of high education costs. If he has been monitoring the situation on the ground, these government offices are actually contributing to the problem by allowing abusive and greedy private schools to go scot free and continue to drain the pockets of millions of families,” Palatino said. He added that the education agencies’ failure to exercise their mandate to regulate school fees should automatically prompt the President step in and address an alarming problem that is not entirely new to Filipinos.

Meanwhile, the youth solon is proposing six “quick and doable” remedities to address the tuition problem, solutions that a “government with a clear and unbridled political will” can easily undertake:

1. Implement a moratorium on tuition and other fee increases.
2. Provide supplemental funding for more scholarships to benefit both private and public school students.
3. Give supplemental funding for state universities and colleges which will absorb more students from the more costly private schools.
4. Certify as urgent Kabataan Partylist’s House Bill 4286 or the “Tuition Regulation Bill” which aims to control tuition and other fee increases and empower students and parents by ensuring a democratic consultation and decision-making process.
5. Direct the Commission on Higher Education to implement Memorandum Order No. 3 effective the second semester of the next school year.
6. Enlarge the share of the SUCs budget for the 2013 expenditure program currently being drafted by the government’s budget planners. Strengthen public higher education.

“That the Filipino youth are continuously losing grip of their right to education should force Aquino to finally see the light and take decisive steps towards reversing policies and practices of deregulation,” Palatino added. The youth solon cited observations made by the National Union of Students of the Philippines, the broadest alliance of student councils and governments in the country, that should force our leaders to come back to their senses:

• SUCs have had their state subsidies go down from 87.74% to 66.31% causing a spike in tuition rates and miscellaneous fees in SUCs;
• The average tuition of private schools in the NCR has doubled from P 9, 231 per semester to P 20, 591 per semester while the national average has gone up from P 5, 406 to P10, 526;
• Exorbitant, unjust, and redundant fees have abounded. Examples are athletic fees with additional sports fees, installment fees, power charge fees, internet fees, etc;
• In the past six years, the top five highest earning private schools raked in P 3.45 billion in net income;
• Seventy-three percent (73% ) of students are forced to drop out due to the high cost of education, according to a 2008 UNESCO study;
• For 2011, the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) says that only two out of ten (2 out of 10) high school students will be able to go to college.

Youth groups led by Kabataan Partylist stormed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in San Miguel, Manila on Monday, May 14 at around 11 a.m. to call on the budget agency to allocate higher funds for basic social services, including education and health, in the 2013 national budget.

As DBM consolidates and prepares the 2013 budget proposal, which will be presented to Congress after President Benigno Aquino III’s state of the nation address on July 23, the youth partylist enjoined the budget agency to consider the long-standing demand for greater state subsidy, particularly for state universities and colleges (SUCs).

“As we begin the budget process, we renew our call for greater state subsidy. The early stage of the budget process, which involves the consolidation of budget proposals of various government agencies by the DBM, is the most crucial part of the budget cycle, as in this part of the process, the room for revision and reform is much wider,” said Kabataan Partylist Spokesperson Vencer Crisostomo.

DBM required all government agencies to submit their budget proposals by April 9, and the budget agency is now consolidating the said documents into the National Expenditure Program, which is basically the draft of the General Appropriations Bill which will be discussed and legislated in Congress.

“As we experienced in the past, once the budget is in Congress, lawmakers are limited to rechanneling and slashing allocations. No new funds can be drawn, and no significant change can be made. And that is why it is important for us to engage the budget agency with our call for greater state subsidy while the ball is still in their court,” Crisostomo explained.

‘Rechannel military funds’

Kabataan Partylist slammed the continued government policy of allocating higher funds for the military than for social services such as the budget for health and SUCs.

In the National Budget Memorandum No. 113 released by DBM last January 31, the Department of Defense was given a budget ceiling of P123.78 billion, up by 8 percent from the current P114.4 billion allocation. Meanwhile, the Department of Health was only given a budget ceiling of 45.54 billion, while SUCs were given a budget ceiling of P30 billion.

Budget ceilings indicate the estimated amount that the government will allot to its agencies even before the complete budget proposal is made.

“Lagi’t lagi nating sinasabi na ang kailangan ng mamamayan ay hindi bala kundi libro at gamot. Pero sa simula pa lang ng proseso ng pagbabadyet, lantad na namang mas bibigyan ng priority ng gobyerno ang militar kaysa batayang serbisyo,” Crisostomo said.

Last year, the government allocated a total of P114.4 billion for defense, which is 6.3 percent of the total national budget. Meanwhile, SUCs were only given a total of P30.3 billion for 2012, an amount which includes the additional P4.2 billion given to SUCs from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). Despite the additional fund from the DAP, the said allocation is only 66 percent of the P45.8 billion actual proposed budget of 112 SUCs in the country for 2012.

“With the P30-billion budget ceiling for SUCs for 2013, we fear that this may again result in budget cuts for SUCs,” Crisostomo said. “The Aquino administration’s sense of priority is clearly misdirected. While it is ready to allot hundreds of billions to the military, SUCs still receive only a fraction of their total need,” he added.

Higher military budget for war?

Crisostomo explained that the Aquino administration may explain the increase in allocation for defense due to the perceived military aggression from China due to the ongoing Scarborough Shoal issue. “For days, the Aquino regime has escalated its China scare tactics by posturing that a war may erupt between the Philippines and China. And the government might use this as an excuse to beef up funds for the military,” Crisostomo said.

“While we need to maintain a strong military force capable of defending our national sovereignty, it is but logical to first consider that the Filipino people need education, health and housing more than more guns and warships. The ongoing conflict between the Philippines and China should be resolved in a diplomatic manner, and not through war, which the Philippines clearly can’t afford,” Crisostomo added.

“At present, what we need is service, and not war. Instead of goading the country to war, the government should focus on improving basic social services. And this could be done if more funds will be allotted to education, health, housing and other basic services that our people need,” Crisostomo said.###

Exactly a year before the 2013 national elections, youth groups and members of Kabataan Partylist launched “Takbo para sa Pagbabago,” a cause-oriented fun run calling on the youth to increase participation in the upcoming polls, and at the same time challenging aspiring candidates to immediately take action on the problems besetting the youth sector.

Clad in sports attires and clutching various banners and calls, Kabataan Partylist members ran around the Academic Oval of UP Diliman on May 13 at around 11 a.m. to “register” the pressing demands of the youth that should be immediately addressed.

“We are running to register our demand to stop unjustifiable tuition increases, to register our demand for higher state funding for education, to register our opposition to the K-12 program, and to register the youth’s commitment for change in the upcoming elections,” said Kabataan Spokesperson Vencer Crisostomo.

“Exactly a year from now, the nation will once again select its new set of leaders. But as early as now, we call on all aspiring candidates, both on the local and national level, to act upon the problems assailing our youth,” Crisostomo said.

“Real advocates of change should not wait for the campaign season to act. Real advocates of change should ensure that the rights and welfare of the youth are safeguarded, and that concrete actions are taken to solve the education crisis way before 2013,” Crisostomo added.

Crisostomo explained that with the current economic crisis – further aggravated by the spiraling tuition rates, budget cuts in social spending and the planned implementation of the K-12 program this coming school year – many students will again be forced to drop out of school and find odd jobs to sustain their families.

The youth runners called for a tuition hike moratorium and higher state funding for education and other social services. Last month, the Commission on Higher Education approved tuition increase proposals of almost 300 colleges and universities nationwide.

“Concrete actions should immediately be taken, instead of implementing programs that will further aggravate the situation such as the K-12 program,” Crisostomo said. He explained that the added years of education under the new curriculum will only translate to added expenses for most Filipino families.

Aside from voicing pressing demands of the youth, the fun run is also part of Kabataan’s “Isang Milyon, Isang Panata” campaign, a voters’ registration drive aiming to urge one million youths to register for the 2013 polls.

Government data reveals that at present, the number of youths aged 18 to 30 who are eligible to vote is estimated to be more than 20 million, with three to five million of this number being first time voters.

“The youth is a primary driving force in the upcoming elections, and we must maximize our influence in the country’s political affairs by ensuring that this 20-million strong youth will all register and participate in enacting genuine change in the coming polls,” Crisostomo said.###

In the opening salvo of the 2013 national elections, Kabataan Partylist (KPL) calls on the youth to “level up” participation in the upcoming polls. “Kabataan: Next Level Na” is the marching call of the first and only youth partylist in Congress, as it announces its intensified involvement in the 2013 elections.

Thousands of KPL members from various chapters throughout the country converge in the Polytechnic University of the Philippines on May 11 for the KPL National Convention, wherein the only youth partylist in the country called for the intensification of unities and alliances among the youth in the light of the upcoming elections.

“In the past elections, the youth has proven that with a strong nationwide unity, we can win a seat in the House of Representatives. As we look forward to the upcoming elections, we should not only celebrate our achievements and victories, but also see the need to intensify our struggle in the light of the worsening national situation,” said KPL Rep. Raymond Palatino.

Palatino explained that the youth should “level up” the struggle against spiralling tuition increases, exorbitant fees, as well as the growing unemployment among the ranks of the youth. “The Aquino regime has promised change for the nation. But the youth has had enough of his lies – we must level up the struggle to assert our rights,” Palatino added.

“In its two terms in Congress, Kabataan Partylist has led not only the youth but also various marginalized sectors of society in the struggle for accessible education, decent employment and genuine solutions to our country’s problems. Next elections, we are again challenged to assert representation in the legislative branch. And we’ll not only settle for one, but three seats,” said KPL Spokesperson Vencer Crisostomo.

Palatino and Crisostomo called on the youth to maximize participation in the upcoming polls. “The youth remains to be a decisive force in the Philippine election, being almost a third of the overall voting population in the country,” Palatino explained.

According to data from the National Statistics Office, the number of youths aged 18 to 30 is estimated at 20 million. “Not all of these youths are registered voters, and we need to ensure that they register and take part in the upcoming elections,” Crisostomo said.

KPL is set to launch “Panata sa Halalan,” a voters’ registration drive aiming to urge 1 million youth to register for the 2013 polls. Panata sa Halalan consists of massive voters’ education drives, information campaigns in schools and communities. “In the next months, KPL will also launch a youth-led election watchdog, which will ensure the integrity of the upcoming polls,”  Crisostomo said.

“There are greater challenges ahead of us, and we must now put our game faces on and proceed to the next level of our struggle for our rights and representation,” Palatino said.###

KABATAAN PARTYLIST Representative Raymond “Mong” Palatino today sounded the alarm on the need for legislative intervention on the yearly school fee hikes, calling on the House leadership to prioritize the passage of tuition regulation bills seeking to control tuition and other fee increases.

The youth solon made the appeal during today’s Congressional hearing on tuition and miscellaneous fees, saying that the “blatant refusal of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to exercise its mandate of regulating school fees warrants an immediate congressional action in the form of a new law that upholds the constitutional right of access to quality and affordable education.”

During the joint hearing by the Committees on Higher and Technical Education and Basic Education and Culture, CHED officials revealed that as of May 7, 2012, 266 private colleges and universities were given the go signal to raise their tuition rates for the next school year.

CHED added that these increases only refer to tuition and do not include miscellaneous fees, which are not presently covered by CHED’s regulatory guidelines. Palatino raised during the hearing that many schools have been foregoing tuition increases in favor of hikes in miscellaneous fees, which do not need to undergo consultation and approval from CHED, resulting in the imposition of arbitrary, redundant and ridiculous fees.

“It is evident from CHED’s inferior track record in regulating school fees that parents and students cannot turn to the agency for help amid the soaring and already unreachable cost of education. In fact, the agency itself has been contributing to the misery of families by approving year after year all applications from private schools to increase their charges,” Palatino remarked.

“This utterly deregulated character of tuition and other fees actually finds basis in our existing laws and policies. It is only fitting that we address the problem of yearly tuition increases through the enactment of a tuition regulation law as it has been government policy to allow private educational institutions to devour humongous profits at expense of the youth’s right to education,” Palatino added.

For 2011, the CHED says that only two out of ten high school students will be able to go to college.

Kabataan Partylist has been pushing for the passage of House Bill 4286 or the Tuition Regulation Bill which aims to control tuition and other fee increases and empower students and parents by ensuring a democratic consultation and decision-making process.

“The unabated tuition and other fee increases have effectively transformed our schools as ripe venues for aggressive profit-making. Many rich and powerful businesspeople have already ventured into owning schools, allowing them to rake in millions yearly. Despite their high earnings, yearly tuition and other fee increases are still imposed as schools reason out that more money is needed for operation expenses,” Palatino said.

The National Union of Students of the Philippines cited that in the past six years, the top five highest earning private schools raked in P3.45 billion in net income.

Palatino clarified however that “while it is true that a number of schools need the increase to prevent themselves from closing down, this remains the exception rather than the rule. The fact remains that the process of increasing tuition and other fees takes place within the context of rampant deregulation, big school earnings and the lack of democratized participation from students, parents and members of the academic community.”

“We would have preferred that the issue of high tuition rates be addressed first via an immediate action on the part of CHED but despite the resounding call of parents and students to immediately revise the present tuition guidelines, the agency decided to make CMO 3 effective for school year 2013-2014,” Palatino said.

With pressure from Kabataan party-list last year during a public hearing in Congress that tackled the youth group’s resolution on exorbitant school fees, CHED was pushed to draft a new tuition and other fee guidelines (CMO 3). Among the salient features of the guidelines are the inclusion of miscellaneous fees in the consultation and sanction for non-compliance which includes cancellation of school application for fees increase and introduction of new fees. Administrative and criminal charges can also be filed against violating schools and/or its responsible officers

Meanwhile, Palatino is also calling on CHED and the Department of Education to publish in major and regional dailies and on their respective websites the list of schools that will be increasing tuition and miscellaneous fees and the corresponding increases that will be implemented for the next school year.#

KABATAAN Partylist Rep. Raymond “Mong” Palatino
May 7, 2012

Congress adjourned sessions last March 21 or 46 days ago. Sessions resumed today but we will adjourn again on June 7. The third regular session of the 15th Congress will begin on July 23.
Lack of quorum is often cited as the primary reason for the failure of the House of Representatives to deliberate and pass on time the government’s priority legislative agenda and other socially important legislative measures. Because of limited time, discussion of LEDAC bills is shortened and voting is often done in haste.

It’s difficult to achieve a perfect attendance in the plenary. This is only possible during SONA and the last session day before Congress goes into recess. Meeting the quorum requirement is a daily problem and it’s quite understandable because the House membership is almost 300 already. The House leadership is lucky because it is dealing with a friendly Minority (most of the time) which can technically question the quorum everyday. To avoid a roll call during the next session day, the presiding officer merely suspend sessions instead of declaring an adjournment.

If Congress wants to be more productive, addressing the quorum problem is not the only remedy. Extend the session days, and shorten the recess.There is no need to change the Rules if we want more plenary sessions. We merely implement Section 69 of Rule XI of the Rules of the House of Representatives:

Section 69. Commencement of Daily Sessions – Daily sessions shall commence at four o’clock (4:00) in the afternoon on Mondays through Thursdays and ten o’clock (10:00) in the morning on Fridays unless the House decides otherwise.

At present, Congress sessions take place from Mondays to Wednesdays only. On the average, sessions last for three hours only.

Maybe session days were shortened to allow Members to address the needs of our district and partylist constituencies. But we must not forget that our principal duty is still to legislate and that should require more work in Batasan. As a compromise, hold sessions until Thursdays so that Fridays can be devoted for district work. Legislative consultations can be done during Congress breaks.

In drafting the calendar for the third regular session of the 15th Congress, the Senate and the House should seriously consider a longer time for plenary sessions. But if legislators insist on holding sessions for three times a week only, then another option is to reduce Congress breaks. There are only 84 session days in the current second regular session calendar as opposed to the 98 days during adjournment.

Our present legislative performance leaves much to be desired.

If we demand swift action from offices of the executive department in addressing the concerns and problems that our constituents face in their everyday lives, policy and legislative work should be equally responsive. But in a year, just how many days do we spend as legislators talking about and deliberating on issues that warrant legislative intervention? Three days a week in only several months a year is simply insufficient to cover the multitude of concerns that plague the people.

Publish attendance in Committee Hearings

At present, only the plenary attendance is disclosed to the public.But in the name of transparency, we must also publish the attendance of Hosue members during committee hearings.

Plenary sessions commence at 4pm because there are committee hearings in the morning and afternoon. But only few committee meetings are able to muster a quorum and they are usually related to impeachment cases or budget matters. It’s SOP to dispense with the calling of the roll.

Committee work should not be ignored since it’s equally important to our plenary participation. Through public hearings, we can hear the comments of concerned stakeholders to our legislative proposals. This is the time when citizens are able to engage our lawmakers which is a necessary component of democratic politics.

Lobbyists and government resource persons are able to insert amendments or even block legislation at the committee level.

There are almost no issues to discuss or debate anymore when a bill or resolution is tackled in the plenary because the objectionable or vague provisions of the measure have been resolved already (hopefully) in the committee hearings.

Active participation in the committee deliberations is crucial to improve the quality of legislation in the country. Therefore, House Members must be compelled to attend both the plenary and committee sessions.

The initial step is to urge the leadership to publish the attendance of House Members during committee hearings. There are 54 standing committees and 11 standing committees. Non-performing committee members must be removed from the committee. It’s actually mentioned in the Rules:

Section 36 ….A Member of a committee who incurs three (3) consecutive unexplained absences within a regular session shall forfeit membership in that committee.

It’s the Speaker who approves the membership of each committee. For the record, I’m a member of only 11 committees.

Salute to the Hardworking Secretariat

We recognize the Congress Secretariat for their dedication, efficiency, and consistency in performing their duties as government employees. They go to work even if Congress sessions are adjourned. They enroll our bills, conduct research, process our numerous requests, monitor the floor proceedings, handle our security, and maintain order in Batasan. Their work ethic should be the guide for all Members of Congress.

There is no disputing that a wage hike is urgent and necessary. But as various labor groups, economists and government agencies put forward differing suggestions on how wages should be increased, Kabataan Partylist Representative Raymond Palatino today said an across-the-board P125 legislated wage increase nationwide is “the most humane, reasonable and responsive to the needs of the toiling masses burdened by the soaring prices of goods and services.”

The youth solon made the statement following various wage hike proposals made by different workers’ groups and sectors: P90 from the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, P8 by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines and P13 to P21 according to the Department of Labor and Employment. Palatino echoed the call of militant labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno, which has been calling for a legislated wage hike in the private sector for more than a decade.

“Until now, the government has been relying on the regional wage boards to consider and address issues related to wage increases. Sadly, RWBs have only been providing very measly and sparse wage hikes that do nothing to help workers cope with incessant price increases of oil and basic commodities. The creation of these wage boards practically abolished the national minimum wage and resulted to a decline in real wages and purchasing power of worker over the years,” Palatino said. Since wage boards were created in 1989, the highest wage increase granted by RWBs was P36 in Central Luzon in 2002.

Progressive legislators in Congress have been pushing for a legislated wage hike since the 11th Congress, but up to this day, Congress has yet to enact these legislative proposals. During the 13th Congress, legislators approved an earlier version of the bill filed by the late Anakpawis solon and labor leader Crispin Beltran by a vote of 151-0. The workers’ victory, however, was only short-lived as the bill was not immediately transmitted to the Senate and was recalled months after.

“Congress could only live up to its name of being the representatives of the people by heeding the resounding call of ordinary Filipinos instead of succumbing to the lies and deception of big businessmen and economists whose brand of economics has been discredited by history itself. The issue of wage increases presents to the government two choices: either it upholds the rights of its workers to decent wages or protect the continuous accumulation of excess profits of corporations,” the activist-solon said.

Big businesses and some government economic planners constantly argue that a legislated wage hike would shake the economy and force firms to close, perpetually raising the specter of inflation when a wage increase is in the offing.

Palatino, however, said that pitting wage increases against lay-offs and price increases is merely an “underhanded tactic employed by greedy big businesses in order to justify an unjustifiable appetite for profit. The P125 wage increase would not lead to lay-offs and price increases if only corporations could afford to give up a portion of their profits.” A study by think-tank Ibon Foundation shows that the P125 across-the-board wage hike amounts to a mere 12% reduction in capitalists’ profits.

Palatino added that the government cannot say that wage hikes would cause the closure of factories, particularly of small and medium enterprises as “the main threat to domestic industries is not wage increase, but government policies that favor foreign corporations who receive import privileges, tax holidays, and other incentives, and allow them to monopolize vital industries.”

“The absurd assumption that the accumulation of capital and the continuous profiteering of big corporations keep the economy rolling should be dismissed by the government. When the State continues to press down on workers’ wages and refuse to address their genuine concerns such as contractualization and unfair labor practices, it ceases to serve the workers who form the backbone of our economy,” Palatino said.