MANILA, Philippines — Members of the House of Representatives will soon find themselves locked out if they arrive at the session hall while the roll is being called.
Majority Leader Rodolfo Farinas said the majority bloc agreed at a recent caucus that beginning with the regular session on July 25, the roll of members will be called at exactly 4 p.m.
At this time, Farinas said the doors of the session hall will be locked and reopened only after the name of the last member of the House — there are currently 292 — has been called.
“Anyone not responding to the call will be marked absent except those attending committee hearings as authorized by the Rules Committee or the Majority Leader,” he said.
“It’s about time,” he added.
Most seats typically remain empty at the beginning of the session at 4 p.m.
“We’ve been wasting time waiting for members to trickle in for the roll call to the prejudice of those who show up at 4 p.m.,” Farinas said.
While quorum is always attained during the three-days a week session, official proceedings such as the referral of bills, sponsorship speeches, debates and voting usually start after 5 p.m., when the majority of the House members have arrived.
Farinas said he is also considering moving the session to 10 a.m. and committee hearings to the afternoon.
However, he acknowledged that lawmakers from the province, who usually fly in on Monday, will surely raise objections.
As chairman of the committee on rules, Farinas said he also sees to it that members are in the meeting room at exactly 2 p.m.
“We start exactly at 2 p.m. with the doors locked and call the roll of members,” he said.
“Initially, we had chairpersons and sponsors arriving late and locked out. We had one chairman who was locked out for three consecutive Tuesdays; he finally learned to arrive early on the fourth time,” he said.
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