Fireworks in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan

By Eva C. Visperas

Will it be a better Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) this time? This is the question newsmen covering the session at the provincial board have been asking the past two weeks. (From Friday afternoon, the schedule for their regular session was moved to Monday afternoon).

In the previous set of SP officials, I noticed a “harmonious” relationship among the board members. Once at the session hall for their deliberations hardly was there a heated argument or discussion. Maybe they were good at ironing out kinks.

Veteran Board Member Alfie Bince is back. He said he will be a real minority leader in the SP. We hope he will be up to it to the very end. We all know he is a brilliant lawyer, an articulate legislator. Sana huwag niyang ipikit ang mga mata niya sa katotohanan, a friend whispered.

Covering the provincial board session has been a part of my reporter’s life. I knew who were the chairmen and co-chairmen of the committee on silence, or the committee on reading scripts for their probe during Question Hour concerning controversial and pressing issues, the committee on compromises, the committee on money matters, and the committee on grandstanding, among others.

In the past, there was a board member who was fond of sponsoring “newspaper” resolutions. This means, this legislator loved to sponsor “andi kakanaan” (useless) resolutions since these were merely “resolution supporting blah blah  blah” based on news you read on newspapers. For this honorable board member, its quantity, not quality, that matters. Parakelan.

Will someone in the board finally rise to question or possibly expose alleged transactions of the executive department? The present governor seems good at exposing alleged anomalies committed by the past administration. I hope he remains clean.

I recall that during the time of our PUNCH colleague, then Vice Governor Gonzalo Duque, covering the sessions was intellectually rewarding. There was also the fiery Board Member Romy de Leon (who has lately joined his Creator) who delivered with fire and brimstones.

Then, of course, the sessions were lively, too, during the time of Bince,  the late Bobby Ferrer, Editha Demetria, Diony Antiniw, et al. (Note: I’m talking here of board members during my time as a reporter only covering the sessions. I was told the earlier batch or batches were equally eloquent, articulate, intelligent and bold).

We hope to see fireworks in the provincial board, not that we love chaos, but we want to see democracy alive and working in the discussions. We’d love to hear our honorable gentlemen and women deliver well-prepared privilege speeches, and dare to expose anomalies. We are expecting more Question Hours with corresponding actions unfolding.

Yes, we’d love to read intelligently crafted resolutions and ordinances, not from the lazy copycats.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/business-log/)

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments