SEPARATE congressional hearings and investigations are currently being conducted by both houses, left and right. Some are still bewildered why Congress is spending, if not wasting, its time and resources on these hearings and investigations, instead of focusing on its mandate to legislate. To them, discovering who are involved in the proliferation of drug trade inside the country’s national penitentiary or who is the mastermind behind the alleged extrajudicial killings in Davao is beyond the functions of Congress.
To those who are already fed up with the dose of entertainment and/or drama provided by the congressional investigations, unfortunately, on its face, our lawmakers are still asking within their powers granted by no less than the Constitution.
Section 21, Article VI of the 1987 Constitution states that “[t]he Senate or the House of Representatives or any of its respective Committees may conduct inquiries in aid of legislation in accordance with it’s duly published rules of procedure. The right of persons appearing in or affected by such shall be respected.”
Inquiries in aid of legislation are inter alia, undertaken as tools to enable the legislative body to gather information and, thus, legislate wisely and effectively, and to determine whether there is a need to improve existing laws or enact new or remedial legislation. These inquiries, however, seem to have divided the country. The comprehensive coverage of these inquiries, in all forms of media, including social media, has not helped in uniting the people who have been divided since the election. Worse, these inquiries, which are supposed to assist our lawmakers in enacting legislation, have reached international recognition, albeit in a bad light.
With all the apparent damage that these congressional inquiries are causing the country and our people, we could only hope that these will end on a good note, with our lawmakers bringing much-needed developments to our local legislation. A genuine effort to improve legislation, and not politics, should be the driving force behind these inquiries.