Senator Raffy Tulfo on Tuesday blamed Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano for supposedly holding up priority bills over pending minority committee assignments, but the Senate’s own rules and recent committee hearings show that legislative work can continue despite unfilled seats.
Tulfo raised the issue during the August 11 plenary session, claiming that delays in completing committee memberships were leaving key measures “hostage.”
What do the Senate rules say?
Section 19 of the Senate Rules states that committee chairs and members “shall commence in the exercise of their duties upon their election.”
The rules do not require a committee’s entire membership to be completed before its elected members can exercise their duties. Section 22 also allows committee chairs to call hearings as long as the required quorum is present.
Section 18, meanwhile, provides that the membership of permanent committees is chosen by the Senate, meaning the Minority Leader alone does not have the final authority to constitute a committee.
The Senate’s own record shows this in practice.
Multiple committees conducted hearings throughout July, even before minority senators were elected to their committee assignments on August 3.
Tulfo’s Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change itself held hearings on July 14 and July 20. As chair of the panel, Tulfo is again scheduled to conduct a hearing on Friday, August 14, even as memberships in several Senate committees remain incomplete.
Does the majority really need to wait?
The current Senate majority has held the chamber’s leadership since June 17 and has 13 senators, giving it the numbers to move Senate business forward.
Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said 32 committees were still awaiting complete membership, making the vacancies a broader organizational matter for the chamber rather than an obstacle confined to Tulfo’s committees.
With committees already holding hearings before the minority’s assignments were finalized, elected chairs exercising their powers, and a 13-member majority leading the chamber, there is nothing being held hostage with the pending committee assignments.