'Children are watching this': Honasan frowns over public quarrel of Senate, House
At A Glance
- Senator Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan called out members of Senate and House of Representatives amid their public quarrel over the proposed Charter change (Cha-cha).
Former Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan answering questions during a press conference (Dexter Barro II/MANILA BULLETIN)
Is this the kind of example we want to show to children?
This was the question former Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan posed to members of the Senate and House of Representatives amid their public squabble on the proposed Charter change (Cha-cha).
“We have to call the attention of our national leaders, bawas-bawasan yung pagtatalo (lessen the arguments) in public,” Honasan said in a press briefing on Wednesday, March 6.
“Bakit natin ito ginagawa in public? No offense to media ah, dapat sila muna nag-usap usap,” he added.
(Why do we do this in public? No offense to the media, they should have talked first.)
“Our children [are] watching this,” he stressed.
Instead of issuing statements and holding press conferences, both chambers of Congress should have discussed their differences first through the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), said Honasan.
He explained that during the administration of the late former President Fidel V. Ramos, LEDAC was crafted specifically to resolve disagreements before saying anything to the public.
“We should be doing this as a matter of procedure. So hindi ito maganda para sa ating demokrasiya, ang effect nito is some degree of instability,” the former army official said.
(So this is not good for our democracy, its effect is some degree of instability.)
Honasan stressed that both the House and Senate should revert back to the “strength of dialogue” and focus on Cha-cha.
A firm supporter of the proposed economic amendments to the 1987 Constitution, Honasan envisions the revamped supreme law to help “develop and build an ideal nation”.
“Can you imagine what will happen if we get our act together? We lose the partisan political noise and concentrate on nation-building and the potential that we can explore as a nation,” he underscored.