by Ed P. Ferrer

URBIZTONDO, Pangasinan - An outstanding legislator from Pangasinan has strongly urged that “the Senate be abolished.”

This was the strongly-worded message of Representative Amado T. Espino, Jr. (2nd district, Pangasinan) during the inaugural rites and blessings of the newly-constructed municipal hall and this town’s new public market.

Apparently, the 2nd district solon has been long disgusted due to the inaction of the Senate ’sitting’ on the many vital legislative measures coming from the Lower House.

According to Espino, “The Senate could only be abolished once the proposed charter change is pursued” adding “in order to accelerate the economic development of the country and obtain a lasting peace and put an end to the frequent rallies by our countrymen.”

Espino, chairman of the powerful Committee on Public Order adn Safety, cited his own personal travails: “In 2001, I personally sponsored a significant Bill seeking the conversion of the Urbiztondo-Basista highway from provincial to national road, but was never calendared by the Upper Chamber,” he rues.

He stressed that he is backing up the shift from the presidential to the parliamentary system and the creation of a unicameral legislature in order to put an end to gridlocks now resulting to paralysis between the Senate and the Lower House.

“The legislation process would be a lot faster with only a unicameral legislature unlike in our present form of government where the Senate virtually sat down most of the approved Bills coming from the Lower Chamber,” Cong. Espino explained.