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BICAMERAL legislatures, such as that of the Philippines, are composed of two chambers widely and historically known as the “Upper House” and the “Lower House”.
The upper house is often called a Senate, while the lower house takes on different titles such as House of Representatives as in the Philippines, United States, and Australia, or Chamber of Deputies as in Mexico, Chile, and Italy.
According to the book Bicameralism by George Tsebelis and Jeannette Money, the earliest appearance of a bicameral legislature was in 14th-century England. By the 18th century, the British parliament was widely regarded among Western philosophers as a model political institution.
In the book, the authors explain that England’s legislative practice of meeting in two distinct decision-making assemblies – the House of Commons and the House of Lords — was recast in terms of the ancient Greek theory of mixed government wherein the “lower house” represented the democratic element of society; the “upper house,” the aristocratic element; and the king’s veto power, the monarchic element.
Interestingly, the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines held office in the same premises after the 10-year Commonwealth period in 1946. The building called the “Executive House” was located on P. Burgos St., Manila; it now houses the National Museum.
In this building, the House of Representatives occupied the lower floors and the Senate, the upper floors. The phrases “Upper House” and “Lower House” referring to the two chambers of Congress were supposedly derived from this setup.
At present, the Senate holds office at the Government Service Insurance System Building on Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City. The House of Representatives, meanwhile, is located at the Old Batasang Pambansa Building in Constitution Hills, Quezon City.
According to PCIJ’s Guide to Government, the references to Upper House and Lower House stuck during the post-martial law period, despite the separate offices that the Senate and House now occupy.
Some House members had averred that the phrase “Lower House” was being used to allude to their intellectual and political attributes. Some had tried to expunge the phrase by offering their own, including the “Bigger House,” a reference to the chamber’s numerical superiority.
Soon enough, however, former Senator Rene A.V. Saguisag proposed to describe the Senate as the “Better House”.
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THERE IS “a new information nervous system in the world today.” Its name, in a word: the Internet.
The Internet, according to Press Attache Bettina Malone of the United States Embassy in Manila, is a most important platform for free expression, telling stories, encouraging public discourse, and for exchange of ideas and entrepreneurship.
In her remarks at the opening today of the forum “Taking Stock, Taking Control: Freedom of Expression Online,” that PCIJ organized with assistance from the US Embassy Press Office, Malone cited the role of citizen journalists in the May 2013 elections.
“Citizen journalism is about citizens telling stories about their communities… stories that can be brought to the attention of those who make the decision,” she said.
“We have a new nervous system in the world,” she said, but also cited the need to expand Internet access and engagement with greater numbers of the population. “What about the ordinary citizens? are they aware of their freedom of expression?”
Malone said the US Embassy had first thought about supporting a public forum for citizen journalists to mark the observance of World Press Freedom Day last May 3. The Embassy later agreed to support the PCIJ’s pitch for a post-election activity that would tackle the role of social media in the May 2013 elections.
“Freedom of expression and an open exchange of ideas” are the ideas behind the conduct of the forum, she said. Citizen journalists must “help keep the freest press in Asia, free,” Malone said.
WITH the May 2013 elections just done, it’s time to take a long hard look at how netizens and journalists have contributed in ways good and not so good at the results of the vote.
“Taking Stock, Taking Control,” a forum of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism on freedom of expression online, and the role of social media in fostering good governance, opened today with a good harvest of talking points for citizen journalists.
To be sure, however, the discussion is founded on solid ground.
No less than the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has firmly and absolutely endorsed the principle that all governments must abide by: “freedoms offline must be protected online.”
This, according to PCIJ Executive Director Malou Mangahas who opened the PCIJ forum, is clear in the text and spirit of the UNHRC’s Resolution 20/8 that was passed on May 7, 2012, or just a year ago.
The UNHRC resolution affirmed that, “the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression, which is applicable regardless of frontiers and through any media of one’s choice, in accordance with articles 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.”
The resolution, in large measure pushed by the government of Sweden, noted that “the exercise of human rights, in particular the right to freedom of expression, on the Internet is an issue of increasing interest and importance as the rapid pace of technological development enables individuals all over the world to use new information and communications technologies,”
It called upon all states to “promote and facilitate access to the Internet and international cooperation aimed at the development of media and information and communications facilities in all countries. Encourages special procedures to take these issues into account within their existing mandates, as applicable.”
The UNHRC resolution does not seem to find common purpose, Mangahas noted, in the Aquino Administration’s persistent pursuit of its Cybercrime Prevention Act.
Mangahas said that because the Internet celebrates freedom, it seems important as well to expect that it delivers good, positive results for the citizens. She noted that in Southeast Asia, netizens and journalists are on the right path in promoting e-governance, transparency, and accountability online.
In other parts of the world, she noted that hackers are treated with more deference and respect, as they have helped scrape, mine, and script public data and documents in open data format to inform public discourse. She said it would be good to hope to work together and hold “hackathons” with “hacktivists” sometime soon in the Philippines.
But a perfect balance between the need for government to invoke security, and mount surveillance of citizens online on one hand, and the assertion by netizens of freedom online on the other, is most difficult to achieve, she said.
Mangahas said the Web has been hosting “a lot of good, even excellent writing” adding though that it might do journalists and netizens good to learn and work together “not as old media or new media but as an all-media community.”
“We have chosen to write and that is a private choice,” she said. “But because we have decided to write in the public domain, we should understand that there should be rules as well.” The important thing, she said, is for journalists and netizens to agree and pursue “the values that unite us.”
MARAGONDON, CAVITE — As early as 7 a.m., voter Diana Inguanzo, 55, had rushed to the public market and cooked lunch for her children because she knew that voting will take time. She queued up at 9 a.m. and finished voting three hours later, or past noon.
Jojo de Mesa, another voter, meanwhile, could not help but compare his experience in the 2010 elections when he was able to vote in less than an hour. Today, he observed that voters in his barangay who used to be assigned to separate rooms are now clustered in one room, hence the long wait to cast a ballot. Like Inguanzo, De Mesa ha to wait in line for hours before getting a chance to cast his vote.
Election officer and teacher Millet Diquit said that lines tend to stretch longer particularly in clustered precincts or barangays that have more voters. In her assigned precinct, over 400 voters are enrolled, while the precinct to which Inguanzo and De Mesa belong serves about 900 voters.
Long queues, the heat, and the intermittent rain are some of the difficulties that voters had to endure at the Maragondon Elementary School in Maragondon, a third-class municipality in the province of Cavite. Yet despite these minor hurdles and an alleged report of one problematic PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machine in another school, elections in this town known for a time in history for political violence unfolded fairly well.
Maragondon is the largest town in Cavite, the second vote-rich province in the Philippines with over 1.79 million voters. More than six decades ago, Maragondon had hosted an internecine feud between two Cavite political families — the Camerinos and Montanos.
According to Alfred W. McCoy’s An Anarchy of Families: State and Family in the Philippines, then Senator Justiniano S. Montano Sr. and his candidate for governor, were campaigning with bodyguards and supporters in Maragondon in 1947 when they clashed with the town police led by Mayor Patrocinio Gulapa, an ally of the Camerinos. The incident left four dead and others wounded.
Two years later, in February 1949, Gulapa of Maragondon was shot at a cockpit in Noveleta, another town in Cavite. Several months later, Bailen (now General Emilio Aguinaldo town) mayor Hugo Beratio, another Camerino ally, fell to hostile gunfire at the town plaza.
In September 1952, Gulapa’s successor in Maragondon, Severino Rillo, was kidnapped and stabbed to death along with the town chief of police and his officers, who were all allied with Camerino. The incident, dubbed the “Maragondon Massacre”, led to a protracted court case in which Montano — along with several of his proteges and alleged hired gun Leonardo Manecio, also known as “Nardong Putik” — was accused of the killing, according to McCoy’s book.
In the May 2013 elections, a Rillo and a Gulapa are challenging the incumbent family in power, the Andamans. Incumbent mayor Mon Anthony ‘Mon-mon’ Andaman and vice mayor Irineo ‘Pinboy’ Angeles are running for re-election. Mon-mon’s father, Monte Andaman, had been Maragondon mayor from 2001 to 2010.
Candidate for mayor Reynaldo Rillo and vice mayor candidate Reagan Gulapa are allied with the Liberal Party whose candidates for district representative, governor and vice governor include Abraham ‘Bambol’ Tolentino (brother of Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino), former Cavite governor Erineo ‘Ayong’ Maliksi, and Senator Panfilo Lacson’s son Ronald Jay Lacson, respectively.
Reagan is the grandson of former Maragondon mayor Patrocinio Gulapa who was killed in Noveleta in 1949.
Andaman and Angeles, meanwhile, are allied with candidates Gilbert Remulla for congressman, Jonvic Remulla for governor, and Ramon Jolo Revilla for vice governor. The Remullas are supported by the Nacionalista Party that is allied with President PNoy’s Liberal Party, as well as by the opposition United Nationalist Alliance of Vice President Jojo Binay.
Residents of Maragondon, like those in many towns of the country, seem to be torn between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ or even the ‘old-new’ political families still entrenched in local politics, and the familiar names running for national office.
But to student Kean Esguerra, 18, a first-time voter, today’s balloting is “our chance at change.”
“Usually, we say we want change but we’re not given the chance. Now, this is our opportunity to practice our right (to vote) — for our voices to be heard,” he says.
When asked what exactly he wants to change, Esguerra says change is relative, depending on the needs of a community. But in general, he says he wants less corruption and better opportunities for citizens.
Esguerra, who has yet to vote at the time of the interview, says he hopes to feel fulfilled because he would finally be able to “practice suffrage.” Aside from watching political advertisements, debates, and miting de avance gigs, Esguerra says that he did his own research on the background of candidates to see who fits his idea of good government.
Even to 57-year-old Bernardito Bernabe, election day represents change, too. “Para sa akin, para ito sa pagbabago ng ating bayan, ng ating kalagayan. Kasi bumoboto ako, walang namang nangyayari.”
But he says that he voted for candidates familiar to him. “Ang aking naman, basta ‘yung tumulong sa akin… Kung hindi ko kilala, hindi ko iboto,” he said.
In December 2012, Bernabe was involved in a vehicular accident, which left him crippled. As per election regulations, persons with disabilities like him, along with senior citizens and pregnant women, are supposed to be accorded priority in voting. Bernabe said he did not have to queue up and was able to cast his vote in a breeze.
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