Congress resumes session — and bickering — on Monday

The House of the Representatives and the Senate will resume their session — and, according to some lawmakers, their bickering — on Monday after a month-long recess. Deputy Minority leader Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano (Taguig-Pateros) said on Sunday that the agenda of the opposition bloc in the House is to stop the administration camp attempts to amend the 1987 Constitution, even as it flexes its muscles for the second round of impeachment move against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Cayetano also hopes that lawmakers would put to test the Supreme Court's decision declaring Executive Order 464 illegal. "We will try our best to convince the House leadership to summon government and military officials involved in controversial issues, particularly those involving moves for charter change (cha-cha) though people's initiative and election cheating," he said. The lawmaker said that many questions remain unanswered regarding the "Mayuga report," "Hello Garci scandal," and "cha-cha." "Hopefully, makakuha na kami ng (we could get a) copy ng (of) the Mayuga report to find out if it was altered, or how the military conducted the investigation on the generals who were mentioned in the 'Garci tape' concerning election fraud," Cayetano said. He also wanted Conrado Limcauco, director general of the Philippine Information Agency, and Phillip Evardone, chief of National Printing Office, to explain how they used government money in the information campaign supporting cha-cha. Recently, a GMA7 news team caught sight of Limcaoco inside a restaurant with lawyer Raul Lambino spokeman of Sigaw ng Bayan, the group spearheading the signature-gathering campaign for the people's initiative to amend the Constitution. Evardone, on the other hand, is the brother of Eastern Samar Governor Ben Evardone, spokesman for the Union of the Local Authorities of the Philippines, an organization of local government officials supporting the charter change. NOT A RUBBER STAMP Meanwhile, House Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Gerry Salapuddin and Davao del Sur Rep. Douglas Cagas, criticized Senator Rodolfo Biazon's remarks that administration allies in Congress are Malacanang's rubber stamp. Salapuddin and Cagas took exception from to Biazon's statement that the Senate would only stop investigations of various anomalies if it has turned itself a "lapdog of Malacanang." They said that no amount of political gimmickry of senators like Biazon can hide the fact that the Senate's anti-administration probes are for partisan ends, and its dismal performance in passing legislations. Salapuddin said that administration lawmakers are no puppets or lapdogs as some senators allege pro-Arroyo lawmakers to be. "The House is not a Palace rubberstamp. What we are after is not the protection of the President. For instance, we support charter change not for her political survival but because we believe that it is the key to the country's real political and economic stability," the Salapuddin said. Cagas said that, instead of resorting to name-calling, senators should be open to a dialogue with their counterparts in the House. In this manner, we could thresh out disagreements and probably recover lost confidence because of political intramurals. – GMANews.TV