AFTER heaping praise on Senator Vicente Sotto III for ably steering the 18th Senate’s second regular session despite the huge challenge of the pandemic, Senator Cynthia Villar lashed out at him over what she described as his repeated manifestations of preference for physical presence in sessions despite the pandemic.
Villar was among those who praised Sotto, as well as Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Minority Leader Franklin Drilon at the start of the chamber’s final day of sessions before sine die adjournment until July 25, after Sotto rendered a report on the Senate’s legislative harvest during the Covid-19 crisis.
However, barely three hours later, amid efforts to ascertain the ratification vote on the bicameral report – as presented by Senator Ronald dela Rosa – on the bill modernizing the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) with a contentious provision allowing firemen to bear arms, Sotto and Villar clashed.
This, after the latter’s outburst as she tried to pick up the cudgels for Senator Bong Go, dela Rosa’s partymate.
Go had earlier sought to save the bill by saying, “it is just a unit in the BFP,” adding, “not all [firemen] will be given firearms.” Senators were averse to this provision because they recalled having voted against it in the Senate version, and were surprised that it was resurrected in the bicameral report.
The insertion in the bicameral report of the provision allowing firefighters to carry guns was pushed by the House panel, explained Dela Rosa, who added he accepted it as part of “give and take.” However, Drilon said a majority of senators (13) had already rejected that provision when the Senate passed its version, and to have it revived in the bicameral report was unacceptable.
The senators then voted to reject the bicameral conference committee report on a vote of 8 against, 8 in favor and 3 abstaining.
The dispute arose when Senator Bong Go asked later if his vote was counted on the bill.
Go, who had earlier said he was having internet problems – and thus was intermittently “present” in the discussion — was informed by Sotto that his vote wasn’t counted because at the moment the vote was being called, he was not online and did not respond to the call. “If you’re not online, you’re absent. If you have no internet, you better be here,” Sotto said.
This drew a sharp retort from Villar, who said Sotto should “stop” telling senators to be present physically at the session hall, reminding him that, “we are seniors and seniors are not allowed to go out.” She added that if senators were seen violating that quarantine rule, it would not look good for them.
She said Sotto was “lucky” because, despite his age (72), he is not being called out for leaving his house daily to attend to his Senate work.
This apparently miffed Sotto, who told Villar, “I wasn’t referring to you,” or “the senators” as a whole, but only, in this particular instant, to Senator Go, because he was having internet problems.
However, Villar kept complaining about what she described as Sotto’s apparent preference for colleagues who attend sessions physically.
The Senate president finally suspended the session, in an apparent move to cool things down.
When sessions resumed, Sotto and Villar apologized to each other profusely and Sotto asked colleagues for their understanding, as he did not mean “to raise my voice” to make a point because the rule on attendance and vote calls was at issue.
Because of quarantine restrictions and as a precaution, the Senate has been holding hybrid sessions in the pandemic, with a few senators attending at the session hall; and others, virtually from their homes or offices.
At least three senators had been infected with Covid at the start of the pandemic, owing to their exposure to some hearing guests who were Covid-positive. Dozens of employees have also been infected since last year, prompting the extra precautions and the hybrid setup.
Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, meanwhile, said the bill “is not lost,” and the senators can ask the House “to go back to bicam,” to which sotto agreed: “Yes, we can ask the House to form a new panel” in order to finalize the measure, this time, omitting the provision allowing BFP personnel to bear arms.