THE militant Makabayan bloc wants the House of Representatives to return to full face-to-face plenary session now that the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has significantly gone down and continues to drop.
Makabayan lawmakers led by Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) filed House Resolution No. 859 urging the House of Representatives to return to full face-to-face plenary sessions “in light of the right of the people to information on matters of public concern, as well as the constitutional principles of transparency of all acts of public officials and proceedings of government agencies and accountability to the people of the House and all Members thereof.
“It is unfortunate and ironic that while the country has mandated all school age children from the youngest kindergarten pupil to the oldest college student and all workers and employees in public and private offices and workplaces to return to pre-pandemic face-to-face reporting, this is not so with the Members of the House of Representatives,” the resolution said.
The two other Makabayan bloc members are Reps. Arlene Brosas (PL, Gabriela) and Raoul Manuel (PL, Kabataan), who, during the floor deliberations on Resolution of Both Houses No. 6 which calls for the creation of a constitutional convention to amend the 1987 Constitution, urged his colleagues to be physically present for the nominal voting on the measure.
The lawmakers said the House is still implementing Rule XII entitled “Conduct of Plenary Sessions through Electronic Platforms,” which it began to implement during the 18th Congress when the number of COVID cases were still high and many areas were in Alert Levels 3 to 5 (high to alarming case counts).
“Isn’t it embarrassing that little kids have been doing face-to-face since last year while congressional representatives are still on Zoom?” Castro said.
The teacher-lawmaker said lawmakers can better perform their duties when they physically attend sessions to participate in debates and deliberations on various bills and resolutions and discussions on pressing national issues.
“We hope that the House leadership will heed our call so the public would know what’s happening at the Batasan,” she said.
