Senators condemn trigger-happy solon

Opposition Senators Edgardo Angara and Blas Ople denounced an administration congressman yesterday for allegedly disgracing the entire Congress by firing a gun during a recent wedding feast in Barangay Sto. Rosario in Hagonoy, Bulacan.

Angara, who heads the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, cited a Hagonoy police report which stated that Rep. Wilhelmino Sy Alvarado (Lakas, Bulacan) fired his 9 mm. pistol last Saturday to intimidate a certain Buji Manansala, an opposition aspirant for barangay captain.

"We demand that President Arroyo, who has assumed the national chairmanship of Lakas, let the law take its course in the case of Congressman Alvarado and extend protection to the victims of this lawless violence," Angara said.

Ople, who hails from Hagonoy, said Alvarado should answer for his acts before the criminal courts, the Commission on Elections, and his peers in the House of Representatives.

"By his drunken act of violence, Congressman Alvarado has disgraced the House of Representatives and the entire Congress of the Philippines. For this, he must be held to account by his own peers," he said.

The senators described the incident as "the first gross act of electoral terrorism" related to the July 15 barangay elections.

Ople noted that Hagonoy is one of the most peaceful and progressive towns in Bulacan and the entire Central Luzon.

"It takes a hooligan of a congressman to disrupt the peace and even the rhythm of life in the blessed municipality," he said.

Witnesses claimed that after disrupting the wedding party, Alvarado fired more shots in front of Manansala’s house as well as that of councilor Elmer Santos of the same barangay.

Solon gets thrown out

A Visayas solon was thrown out of the House session hall last night for alleged "unruly" behavior.

Deputy Speaker for Mindanao Gerry Salapuddin, who was presiding over the session, ordered Iloilo Rep. Augusto Syjuco Jr. removed from the session hall shortly after the latter criticized the chamber’s leadership.

In a privilege speech, Syjuco said the chamber’s leaders have been engineering the railroading of bills, putting the entire institution in bad light.

"Ginoong Speaker, huwag po nating payagang babuyin ang ating institusyon (Mr. Speaker, let us not allow our institution to be desecrated)," he pleaded.

The plea was apparently offenseive to the ears of Salapuddin, who is a Muslim. He admonished Syjuco to use parliamentary language.

At this point, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II took the floor and moved for expunging from the record of proceeding the "unparliamentary" remarks of the Iloilo solon and to declare him out of order.

After the chamber sustained the Gonzales motion, Syjuco kept on seeking recognition by the presiding officer, prompting Salapuddin to order the sergeant-at-arms to escort the "unruly" solon out of the session hall.

It was the second time he was thrown out after criticizing the leadership.

The first time he was also punished, he vowed to continue calling his colleagues’ and the nation’s attention to what he considers is not right with the House and its leaders. –With Jess Diaz