Will we see reforms with Speaker Nograles?

There is no doubt about it, the month of February is indeed the month of political turmoil and change, thanks to the two EDSA revolts and all those coups. If you ask me, we should contemplate in changing the schedule of our elections to February because it seems that everyone wants to effect political changes in February and that’s exactly what we got when last Monday evening, the House of Representatives finally got rid of Rep. Jose de Venecia’s near dictatorial grip of Congress!

Actually when I saw that ABS-CBN already began its live coverage of Congress beginning its session, I already knew that the die had been cast and that those who wanted to end the long reign of Speaker Jose de Venecia (JDV) already had the numbers to kick him out. If you recall a few months back our very own Rep. Pabling Garcia spearheaded a charge to oust JDV. At that time, Pabling just didn’t have the votes to launch him to the post of Speaker. In fact, Congress didn’t even find the need to go into voting similar to what happened last Monday night.

So when I saw Rep. Pabling Garcia administer the oath of office of the new Speaker, Prospero Nograles, many Cebuanos felt a sense of poetic justice for Pabling as he was part of the coup that finally ended the five-term reign of JDV in the House of Representatives. If you ask me, Congress now has to go into real reforms in order to prevent the emergence of another JDV that would rule Congress for so long. I heard a congresswoman suggest that like the Office of the President, the Speaker should also have a term limit and I fully concur with that suggestion.

So this brings us to the question, will changing the leadership in Congress usher in badly needed changes in the Legislative Branch of the government? Will Speaker Prospero Nograles be the exact opposite of JDV or will he merely come out as the left pocket of an Arroyo polo shirt where JDV was the right pocket? Since he is new in his post, we will afford Speaker Nograles the customary three-month honeymoon or “break-in” period where we will only be giving suggestions to him and not attacking him or his plans and policies.

From the reports we gathered, all the Cebuano congressmen in the six congressional districts of the province voted to oust JDV, while the congressmen of Cebu City’s North and South Districts, namely Reps. Raul del Mar and Antonio Cuenco, respectively, stuck it out with JDV up to the last. For whatever it is worth, we heard that Rep. Pabling Garcia could be the next Deputy Speaker of the House. Call it a small consolation with no historical implications.

Pabling wanted to be Speaker because in his twilight years he would have been the first Cebuano to become Speaker since Don Sergio Osmeña Sr. became the very first Speaker of the National Assembly. Being Deputy Speaker is no big thing for Cebuanos because our very own Rep. Raul del Mar was JDV’s Deputy Speaker.

If there was anything positive that we learned from JDV’s historic ouster, it was that when the members of the House explained their votes, we found a few jewels from the hallowed halls of Congress as they spoke with uncanny eloquence and revealed a hint of statesmanship. But sad to say, I couldn’t recall the names of these lawmakers. If I could recall their names, I would have printed them in this column today.

So now that we have a new Speaker in the person of Rep. Prospero Nograles, will we truly see reforms in Congress that so many Filipinos (including many neophyte congressmen) expected? One such immediate reform I would like to see them do is to set term limits on the speakership and the chairmanships of the various powerful congressional committees.

If they agree to set a term limit for the Speaker, let me suggest further that the speakership be shared among Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. For instance, if the Speaker today comes from Mindanao, then the Deputy Speaker should come from either the Visayas or Luzon. After the term of Speaker Nograles is over, the next Speaker should be elected from either Luzon or the Visayas.

Perhaps the best reform is to return to the two-party political system. These are just a few of the examples of real reforms that we are suggesting so that the Filipino people would know that a new dawn has emerged in the House of Representatives.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected] or [email protected]. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” shown every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.