Will Duterte call a Senate’s Special Session for poll’s extension

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

When we reporters jostled and shoved to throw our queries to Senator Cynthia Villar during the first day of the recess of Congress last March 24, she answered my question that the May 14, 2018 election will push through despite its being passed by the House of Representatives.

“Tapos na ang Senado, tapos na ang Kongreso. Wala na kami, e (inaudible). Tapos na iyong barangay election,” Senator Cynthia Villar cited the recess of the members of the Houses of Senate and Representatives where they would be returning back to their jobs at the August Chambers a day before the May 14, 2018 polls.

I did not pose my second follow up not because I was cut by fellow reporter to throw my other question but I was hit by mental block, salamabit, by asking the two words’ S-p-e-c-i-a-l  S-e-s-s-i-o-n found at Section 15 Article VI in the Constitution.

Village Chairmen of Alcala, Pangasinan preparing to board the airline that would ferry them from Davao City to Manila. The guy at  the right side with stripe dress is retired police Inspector Aquino who used to be a cop in Dagupan City. 

I should be posing to the diminutive solon what if President Rodrigo Duterte will ask a Special Session to compel the Senate and the Bicameral Committee to pass another extension of the poll.

***

When I entered last Tuesday afternoon the terminal of the Davao International Airport, the place was teeming with Special Weapons & Tactics (SWAT) personnel and several dark, hugely built, tough looking guys queuing at the airline ticket booths for Luzon.

“Are these guys hoodlums or hijackers thus the presence of cops?” I asked myself.

Then I heard chatters in Ilocano and Pangasinenses from various lines and those who were idly waiting at the sidelines near the edifices’ glass walls.

I was stupefied for a moment. “When did the time the Tower of Babel relocate at the Durian City,” I muttered.

“Bakit andito kayo Mortz?”somebody spoke at my back.

When I turned around I saw Retired Dagupan City Police Inspector Aquino.

“Oy Sarge, bakit kayo andito? Taga Dito ako sa Mindanao nag bakasyon lang,” I retorted.’

Aquino told me that after retirement in 2013 he ran and won the punong barangay post in Alcala, Pangasinan.

“We are here for the convention of barangay captains in Region 1,” he said.

At the Gate 4, as I was looking for a vacant seat where I could encode my column on my laptop, I saw San Quintin, Pangasinan Mayor Clark Tiu , his wife and village chiefs of the Eastern Pangasinan town.

He told me that the main speaker was Under Secretary for Barangay Affairs Martin Dino of the Department of Interior & Local Government.

We had a brief chat on the politics of his town and his town mate and Ninong Police General Marlou Chan.

With San Quintin, Pangasinan Mayor Clark Tiu inside the terminal lounge of the Davao City International Airport.

Then I bumped into the 18 Punong Barangays of Urdaneta City, Pangasinan where one of them told me that Duterte did not show up but Dino promised them that election could be postponed through the president calling a special session.

*** 

But with candidates for the SK and Village polls jostle in filling their candidacies as I wrote this article, do you think it will be popular for President Duterte to call a special session of the Senate to extend in some other time the May 14 village’s race?

Son of a gun, mukhang nabola ni Under Secretary Dino ang mga kapitanis where many of them are gullible.

READ:

How a P5M funds transformed an SK Prexy into a BM

 (You can read my selected columns at mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)