MANILA, Philippines – Banter between the “old maid” and the majority leader defused the tension that followed an exchange on the floor between the “birthday boy” and another senator as the Senate session drew to a close barely two hours before senators convened for Day 17 of the Corona impeachment trial.
The “birthday boy,” Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, had followed Sen. Joker Arroyo on the floor in interpellating blue-ribbon chairman Teofisto Guingona III, on the proposal to involve non-government organizations in the budget debates, when Enrile raised his voice and warned Guingona, “I can also raise my voice”. Apparently, in the excitement of the debate, Guingona, known to speak like a “declaimer” at times, had unknowingly upped his volume, irking the visibly tired chief.
Guingona took the admonition in stride, but Enrile looked grim. A few moments later, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III took the floor and moved to “suspend” the session until 9 a.m. of Wednesday. This raised the eyebrow of the presiding officer, Sen. Loren Legarda, who asked him, with a knowing smile, why he moved for suspension and not “adjournment.”
Sotto gave a long-winded explanation that basically meant: since it’s Valentine’s and everyone is expected to stay up late, merely suspending the session would allow the chamber to go straight to its business on Wednesday without having to call the roll and wait for a quorum. The amused Legarda kept pressing him, so Sotto blurted out, “I’m sorry, Madam Chair, that, as you yourself admitted, you have no Valentine’s date and you’re an old maid.”
Legarda smiled, moved to get hold of the gavel, and said, “well I can assure all of you who will be busy tonight that us old maids will go to sleep early and will be up early tomorrow. I can be here at 8 a.m. to work.”
Whereupon Sotto said, smiling as the camera showed Enrile cross the floor behind him, “in that case then we move for suspension until 10 a.m. tomorrow.”
Legarda replied, “the chair suspends this session until 10 a.m. tomorrow,” and banged the gavel, smiling good-naturedly.
Later at her regular seat, “old maid” Legarda greeted Enrile a “happy birthday” as he passed by, and was rewarded with a big kiss from the “birthday boy.”
source: interaksyon.com
