MINORITY TO PRESENT AMENDMENTS TO THE RULES OF THE ETHICS COMMITTEE
The minority will present a number of amendments to the rules of the Senate
committee of the whole during its third meeting today to ensure that Sen.
Manuel Villar’s right to due process is not impaired when it investigates
the ethics complaint against him.
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. (PDP-Laban) today expressed confidence
that Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile will keep his word to allow them to
introduce the amendments despite the objection of Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
He argued that since the committee of the whole is composed of all the
senators, it should have a rule for determining the quorum different from
that of an ordinary committee like the ethics committee which has a much
smaller membership.
The minority, he said, would also want to propose changes in other parts of
the rules like the manner of conducting the hearings; the questioning of the
complainant and witnesses; and the assessment of whether or not the
complaint is sufficient in form and substance.
Pimentel said it is necessary that the rules are free of flaws to prevent
mistakes and confusion even as he stressed that the minority does not want
to delay the proceedings of the investigation on the Villar case.
“We want to make sure that the investigation proceeds according to legal and
ethical principles and not illegitimately and unethically by preventing a
full discussion of what rules are to be adopted for the governance of the
Senate committee of the whole,” he said.
An ordinary or regular committee is composed of from seven to l5 members.
Under Senate rules, there is a quorum if one-third of the members is
present. The presence of two members is enough to constitute a quorum for
the purposes of transacting business or conducting a hearing.
If there are more than one committee involved in the probe, Pimentel said
the quorum requirement should be one-third of the individual committee
membership but should not be less than two from each committee.
Pimentel said that in the case of the committee of the whole which has 24
members, there a quorum if one half plus one of the total membership, or l3
senators, are present.
He said the contention of Senate President Enrile that the rules of the
ordinary committee were applied to the committee of the whole in determining
the quorum in past investigations does not mean that this is a correct
practice.
“If the use of the rules of an ordinary committee or committees by
implication in conducting investigations by the extraordinary Senate
committee of the whole went unchallenged in the past, the practice is now
being disputed. Simply because an erroneous practice was tolerated in times
gone by does not mean that the error should be perpetuated and allowed to
ripen into a rule ineradicably written on stone,” Pimentel said.
Date: May 10, 2009
Ref: Omeng Maglangit / (02) 5526733 |
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