EDITORIAL — No extenuating circumstances

You have probably heard of the latest drama to happen in the Philippine Senate; the Senate minority bloc walked out last Tuesday, May 26, after a proposal by majority bloc Sen. Rodante Marcoleta to allow online voting in Senate sessions and Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano immediately moving to divide the house to vote on the measure.

The minority bloc justified its actions. One of them said how it was done was against Senate rules, others said it was an obvious move to railroad something that will allow fugitive Senator Ronald dela Rosa to vote in the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio remotely and without exposing himself to the risk of arrest.

Those issue are worth talking about separately. For now let’s just focus on the teleconferencing issue.

Under certain circumstances, senators can be allowed to teleconference or attend sessions remotely; it has been done before by the Philippine Senate during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the reason why our senators were allowed to conduct sessions via teleconferencing at the time was precisely because there was a pandemic going on. People were discouraged from going out and congregating in numbers because there was a risk of getting infected with COVID-19 and passing it on to others.

But right now no such direct threat to senators congregating in numbers exists. Certainly not the war in the Middle East, or our “imminent involvement” in the China-Taiwan conflict, or the La Niña phenomenon, as suggested by Senator Robin Padilla.

Which means that right now there are no pressing circumstances for senators to resort to teleconferencing instead of being physically present to do their job.

Senators already get paid handsomely with our tax money, not just their salaries but all other emoluments, benefits, and perks. The least they can do is show up to do their job. As it stands right now, we are already paying for a senator who has been absent for a good part of the last six months.

Allowing them to work via teleconferencing without extenuating circumstances isn’t just pushing it but is also something that can be taken advantage of.