Absence is not independence

Eleven senators showed up for work on Monday. The thirteen in the majority did not. So the minority sat in the plenary for two hours, the clock ran, and the session never opened — no quorum, no business. At one point a visiting choir was asked to sing the national anthem, just to give the empty hall something to do.

Cayetano says this is about Senate independence. He went on Facebook and told the minority to “go quiet” in protest. They aren’t buying it. The minority now calls itself Solid Bloc 11, and its line was sharper: “This is not Senate independence but a boycott of duty.”

What set it off was Estrada’s arrest. Several majority senators left the building to accompany him after he was taken in on plunder charges, and the floor has been dark since. Cayetano describes the absences as both a protest and a parliamentary play — a way to keep a June 4 Blue Ribbon hearing on flood control from slipping out of his bloc’s hands. Fine. There may be a real institutional fight in there somewhere. There usually is.

Here’s what’s harder to wave away. A senator draws between PHP 293,191 and PHP 334,059 a month, and that doesn’t pause when the chamber decides not to meet. Tulfo said the quiet part out loud: a regular government employee who doesn’t report for work gets marked AWOL and loses pay. A senator who skips the floor loses — what, exactly? Nobody can point to a penalty.

The calendar is unforgiving, too. Congress adjourns this week, with only a few session days left. The bills now stranded aren’t headline-grabbers — the Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers, the Anti-Hospital Detention Bill, a stack of military and police confirmations. Boring, until you’re the one waiting on a barangay health worker or stuck in a hospital you can’t check out of.

Gatchalian kept it procedural: “Walang abiso… clearly a violation of the rules.” And he has a point. The rules let the presiding officer put off a session only after he consults both the majority and minority leaders. That consultation didn’t happen.

So where does that leave us? Not without options.

Dock the pay of senators who miss session without leave — the same rule a patrol cop or a city hall clerk already lives by. Hold the presiding officer to the consultation rule he swore to follow, and if he won’t lead, let the chamber pick someone who will. And publish a roll call after every session: names, present and absent, no spin.

An independent Senate argues in the open and votes on the record. Indi ang nagapungko lang sa balay. The fight is supposed to happen on the floor, where everyone can see it. Walking out and locking the door behind you is hardly independence. It’s just not showing up for work.