EDITORIAL - Get your act together

Fortunately for senators, their latest squabble erupted on the eve of the adjournment of the session. During a congressional recess, the public expects very little work to be done by lawmakers. So senators can devote their time brawling over committee chairmanships and engaging in horse-trading without worrying too much about another precipitous drop in their approval ratings, which have been falling anyway.

The breaks between sessions usually herald junket season for Congress. This time, however, the two warring camps in the Senate have announced that they will continue working through the recess, with their committees holding hearings ostensibly in aid of legislation. Taxpayers should be grateful for this unusual diligence, but no one is fooled: the diligence is meant to establish legitimacy, to stake a claim as the majority group in the Senate.

A week after Sen. John Osmeña bolted the Senate majority, tilting the numbers in favor of the opposition, the chamber remains in deep turmoil. Senate President Franklin Drilon, who was not ousted by the opposition, declared the session adjourned sine die in an effort to stop the reorganization effected by the group that calls itself the new majority. This did not stop the opposition from holding its own session, even passing the absentee voting bill in the absence of the pro-administration senators. The other camp, on the other hand, has reportedly forwarded to the Department of Justice its recommendations on Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s alleged involvement in money laundering.

Both camps are trying to reassure a disgusted nation that it’s business as usual, that the task of legislation continues. Lawmaking in a democracy, however, is supposed to be a bipartisan effort. With parallel committees holding hearings on the same matters, all the results are bound to be invalidated. Before trying to impress a skeptical public about their dedication to their job, the warring senators should first settle the leadership crisis. Unless the Senate can get its act together, all this show of diligence during the recess will be for naught, and a mere waste of taxpayers’ money.