Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on Wednesday rejected the claims of former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile that senators had resorted to “coffee table legislation” instead of engaging in fiery debates.
On Tuesday, Enrile vowed to bring back the ‘glorious days of fiery debates’ in the Philippine Senate as he noted an increasing practice of doing “coffee table” discussions of legislative measures instead of bringing it out for argumentation in the Senate floor.
But Sotto said Enrile might have been given the wrong information on the ongoing debates of proposed measures on the plenary.
Sotto said that the bills are being debated and some even languished in plenary before their passage, especially the controversial ones.
“They smoothly passed if beneficial or non-controversial and/or if bill of local application.”
The Senate leader specifically cited the difficult and lengthy debates on coco levy, rice tariffication, Bangsamoro, Philippine ID system, the revised corporation code, amendments to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas charter, tax amnesty, end-of-contract, universal health care and anti-discrimination bill, among others.
“We had very long debates. In fact, some are still in plenary as we speak,” Sotto added.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, meanwhile, said he does not know what ‘coffee table’ legislation Enrile was talking about.
“He may have been out too long or he has forgotten how legislation works,” Lacson said, referring to the 94-year-old Enrile, who is seeking a senatorial seat in the coming midterm elections in May.
“Exactly why there is controversy involving the already outlawed “pork barrel” being talked about now—it was a product of plenary interpellations on the national budget,” Lacson said.
He said that other measures are being thoroughly debated on the floor before being approved on second and third reading.
Vowing to rid the Senate of the so-called “coffee legislation,” Enrile said that during his 24 years in the Senate, nothing was passed without any debate.
“Unlike today, they go into a coffee table and they discuss it among themselves and that’s it. That’s not a Senate. That’s not a deliberative assembly of the people’s representatives. A democracy must be open where issues are subject to intellectual dissection,” he said.
Enrile recalled that he made sure that issues of national interest were transparent to the general populace.
According to the former senator, who was known for his show-stopping debates with colleagues to include the late Senators Miriam Defensor Santiago and Raul Roco, the desire to bring back open debates on issues that affect the nation was one of the reasons why he decided to run at the last minute.
“I’m not after power. I’ve had it,” said Enrile who, aside from his stint as Senate president, also served as Minister of National Defense, Secretary of Justice, and Customs commissioner in various administrations.