Marcos tells senators: 'Get back to work'
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has told senators to go "back to work," following the Senate majority bloc's skipping of two sessions after Sen. Jinggoy Estrada's arrest for plunder.
"Get back to work. Because it's important... Ang dami nating kailangan gawin," his message to senators, shared with reporters at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum on June 3, went.
"Marami tayong kailangang magawang mga batas. We were thinking baka magka-supplemental budget, baka amyendahan namin ang mga ibang batas. Ito ay kailangan para makapagbigay tayo ng tulong sa taumbayan dahil nasa oil crisis."
Marcos also gave his thoughts on the current state of the Senate, sharing his experience as a Congressman from 1992 to 1995 and 2007 to 2010, and as a senator from 2010 to 2016.
"Hindi ko nga maintindihan, dahil pagkaintindi ko, ang rules [...] you have to inform the other House three days before you cancel a session. And there has to be a very good reason to cancel a session," he said.
"I don't think na ihahatid mo ang isang senador para pumunta siya kung san siya pupunta… hindi yata sapat na dahilan yan para i-cancel ang isang session," Marcos continued. The president did not specify which senators he was referring to, but Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano was seen accompanying Estrada to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Camp Crame on June 1.
Marcos then described the Senate as "in disarray."
"All these events that we have been witnessing [have] thrown the Senate and its leadership—the whole Senate—into disarray. It has discredited the leadership, and it has stopped the essential business of legislation in government," he said.
"The two other departments continue to work. The executive [and judiciary] continue to work. Why does the legislature decide to stop working? I don't understand that. I talked to my fellow senators from the time I was a senator, and we cannot figure out bakit nagkaganito. Pa'no tayo napunta rito?"
The president went on to say that this was the opposite of what the government is trying to accomplish.
"We're trying to achieve some form of stability so people can get on with their lives, so people can plan ahead for their future, and count on the assistance of the government during this time of an emergency," he said. Marcos declared a state of national energy emergency in March in response to the Middle East conflict.
"We cannot do that if the legislature decides to stay at home and have a vacation. That is anathema to everything that governance is about. I never imagined in my entire life, in my political life, that such a thing could happen, especially to the august—it's no longer august now—body of the upper house."
On Monday, Cayetano called on members of the minority to "let the Senate go quiet," as the upper chamber's independence is "being tested."
Members of the minority bloc still showed up during the June 2 session and later urged Cayetano to resign. They also appealed to their colleagues to attend sessions.
The majority bloc defended their absence from plenary sessions, stating they intended to "protect the integrity" of ongoing Senate investigations amid a change of numbers in the chamber.
