ZUBIRI BRISTLES AT CLAIMS

Solons accuse senators of ‘showboating’ on Bayanihan 2 for ‘reelection’

Members of the House of Representatives on Saturday accused senators of showboating in hopes of re-election after they made several remarks on the consolidated bill of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2.

In a statement, Deputy Speaker Dan Fernandez said that the senators wanted to appear as if they were doing their part in passing the bill while “at the same time distancing themselves… to please the ragtag band of anti-government critics.”

"It is clear as daylight that these pathetic senators have been seized by political schizophrenia in slyly positioning way ahead of the 2022 elections at the expense of the House of Representatives. This is showboating in aid of reelection,” he said.

Fernandez also questioned why the Senate approved the bill on its third reading if they were allegedly unsatisfied.

“If our high and mighty senators feel that the consolidated Bayanihan 2 bill was not up to their standards, then why did they approve it during the bicam talks? The truth is a majority of the good features of Bayanihan 2 were actually introduced by the House and were only adopted by the Senate,” Fernandez said.

During the plenary session to ratify the reconciled version of the measure, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senate President Vicente Sotto III said that the Senate was “selfless” in its advocacies.

Fernandez said he took offense to the insinuations made that the House supposedly fought for a “particular personal interest”, saying that the majority of the good features in the measure “were introduced by the House and were only adopted by the Senate.”

This was echoed by Anakalusugan party-list Representative Mike Defensor.

“My suggestion is to authorize the secretariat to release the minutes of the sessions of the bicam talks so the public would know who had presented the majority of the major provisions in the final Bayanihan 2 bill and who among the bicam members had actually been lobbying actively for which interest groups during the entire discussions to come up with the consolidated version,” Defensor said.

According to Defensor, some senators have started thinking that they are “somewhat superior” to members of the House of Representatives.

"They haughtily see themselves on a pedestal, even if many of them or their peers have also served as House members before being elected to the Senate. No one is on a pedestal here. All of us were elected and are tasked to serve the people. Wag kayong magmagaling ," Defensor said.

“Some senators fancy themselves to be the better legislators and look at us members of the House with condescension, and yet throw caution to the wind and desperately woo our support in our respective congressional bailiwicks come election time,” he added.

‘Ridiculous statement’

Meanwhile, Zubiri said that the claims made by the members of the House of Representatives on showboating in aid of reelection were “ridiculous statements.”

"First of all there was no showboating as can be seen in the youtube recorded session that Thursday. The Senators were just congratulating the members of the bicam for a job well done and never did we ‘scoff at' the Ratified Bill,” the senator said in a separate statement.

He added that the Senate would not have passed the bill if it was found to be inadequate.

"Please tell us Mr. Congressmen in which statement did we say that the bill was never up to standards?? Please show me the exact quote because after the review of the video there were no insinuations made. So get your facts straight before you make any accusations towards me and the institution,” he said.

Zubiri said they also took offense at the use of words “pathetic and schizophrenic.” According to him, there was “nothing wrong” in mentioning that the amendments were “born out of advocacy and with no personal gain.”

"Especially after the statement of our Senate President Sotto about the call made to him by President Duterte to make sure that the funding within the measure would be allocated with full transparency and accountability,” Zubiri said.

"We never alluded to anyone or any group of any ill motives as shown by the recorded video of that session. It is unfair to the Senators for these Congressmen to say that we alluded to them. Only the guilty will feel alluded to if ever,” he added.

The Senate majority leader said that he even defended the House with his statements. He also clarified that he was not the one laughing over Sotto’s remarks.

“As a matter of fact I defended them in my statements as shown in the video recordings and said it was a balanced measure with the Senate and the House of Representatives working hard to get it done,” he said.

“They even accused me of laughing at the comments of the Senate President but a short fact check will show that I was not laughing at the senate President but it was another colleague of mine,” he added.

According to Zubiri, some individuals were only trying to divide the House and the Senate.

"So this truly is much ado other nothing with only a few malicious minds working overtime to find a wedge between the Senate and the House of Representatives. These rumor mongers should get their facts checked before they comment further,” he said.

Meanwhile, Senator Sonny Angara said that there were instances when things can be misinterpreted when under pressure.

“Sa akin wala naman ‘yun. Pag under pressure minsan may nasasabi iba ang interpretasyon ng ibang tao. Sa akin there was genuinely policy debate over the items diyan at naiintindihan ko rin saan nanggagaling ang mga kasamahan namin sa Kamara,” Angara said in a radio interview.

He added that senators understood where Senator Pia Cayetano was coming from. Cayetano on Thursday took offense to other senators’ remarks about the motives of their counterparts in the House.

“Opo, hindi ba sinabi niya naging kongresista siya dati at marami naman talaga magagaling at ang gusto national interest. Sa akin naman, no malice intended,” he said. — DVM, GMA News