ON charges of legislative impropriety hurled by a Camarines Sur (CamSur) executive against members of the House of Representatives the agenda is clear. Already, filial piety has been impugned in the pursuit of personal ambitions so any insolence and contempt for the wisdom of the august chambers of the legislature cannot be far behind.
Never mind that legislators are willing to sacrifice and share a slice of their internal-revenue allotments, if only to unburden the long-suffering neglected of CamSur. Such charity is rare. It is to the credit of conscientious proponents who continuously shepherd development measures for CamSur that the heroic and historic were achieved.
In the establishment of a new and economically efficient political subdivision where an ungovernable tract now persists, all things being equal, critical funds will necessarily flow from others to sustain the establishment of two first-class provinces. The House legislators who voted and virtually passed unanimously, 229 to 1, HB 4820, realize this and are willing sacrifice to alleviate CamSur’s continuing poverty.
Unfortunately, for that noble act, the integrity of the House has been called into question as local CamSur executives, by evoking the negative imagery of dagdag-bawas (electoral pad and shave tactics), labeled the lawmakers virtual cheats. CamSur’s local executives allege that HB 4820 proponents and supporters—and there are 229 in the House alone—are resorting to dagdag-bawas in amending the bill.
Blinded by CamSur’s sand and surf, local executives deliberately refuse to see inland, where, beyond the beaches and the palms, constituencies continue to suffer debilitating poverty inflicted by local government corruption, the misuse and malversation of public funds, the nonliquidation of expenses, the nonremittance of earnings and the neglect of critical sectors that sustain CamSur’s productivity.
Outsiders need not read the files on 10 Ombudsman charges brought against local CamSur executives or the numerous reports of multimillion fund misuse detailed by the Commission on Audit. They need not read reports detailing the nonremittance of earnings by local government facilities—missing funds unaccounted for by a private contractor employed by CamSur officials to collect fees and permits.
Reality is more articulate. Simply walk a few meters from the beaches and into the CamSur bush. There, corruption inflicts on the neglected what glossy ads and glib sound bytes conceal.
It is not difficult to see the thinly veiled stimulus and insidious motives for the reprisals against the House of Representatives that simply seeks systemic and structural changes that are more responsive, equitable and mature.
One statistic alone reveals why local executives would deny development that exposes the realities measured by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB). On matters of good governance, the NSCB ranked CamSur near the very bottom—a virtual indictment against self-serving allegations of game-changing prosperity and advertised illusory incomes purchased and proliferated through glitzy multimedia spots.
Offense seems the best defense. The reprisals against Congress started with ludicrous volleys. One involved an accusation that the bill was not subjected to public hearings. Never mind that records prove otherwise.
The second involved desperation. Over local radio, one CamSur executive declared that a congressman apologized for supporting HB 4820 and subsequently withdrew his signature from it. When the named congressman denied such, the CamSur executive pointed to another. To his dismay, his interviewers had tape-recordings belying his claim and the second congressman, likewise, denied retracting support for HB 4820.
The third involves dirty hand-to-hand trench fighting. Absent COA findings, a local politician charged congressional proponents with unrelated counts of plunder using unexamined anecdotes, and curiously, an old and weathered roof painting as proof of malversation.
The fourth is calumnious contempt and plain vanilla ignorance. CamSur’s turf-threatened politicians label the amendment process as dagdag-bawas. The juxtaposition of negative imageries is classic Demolition 101.
Fixated on denigrating the credibility of the legislature, these politicians either fail to understand established legislative mechanics or are purposely pandering to public ignorance, banking that both the media and laymen continuously wallow in the shallows.
In legislation, where distinct parts of a whole might be adjudged infirm, such is confined and neither affects nor impairs the validity of the whole or any other part. Thus, principal measures under consideration would have been enacted, regardless, had imperfections of specific parts been apparent.
For politicians, the lessons of fifth-grade Social Studies reinforced in second-year high school should remain evergreen. In government unlearned schmucks are unacceptable. The legislative process is ever dynamic. Measures do not end with their passage in the House. Amendments and improvements continue, introduced at anytime, incorporated within the Senate version, within the bicameral committee, within incremental hearings, and then thereafter under presidential veto or through post-passage amendments.
To maliciously impugn amendments as “dagdag-bawas” is to be contemptuous of Congress and the legislative process.
