00:00A fine and fairly cool Tuesday evening to all. Yours truly, Ice Martinez here and pleased to bring you PTV News now.
00:09Kicking off our show tonight, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulia has hit a roadblock in his probe of House Solon suspected to be mired in the flood control scam.
00:18And the president has backed on the idea to intercede in ordering or requesting House lawmakers to release their statements of assets, liabilities and network or silence to the Ombudsman.
00:30A point, Powell's press officer slash PCO Undersecretary Claire Cacho drove home in today's latest Malacanang presser, indicating the president is mindful and upholds the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches, which takes ascendancy over a presidential exhortation to Congress.
00:48Perceived as executive overplay.
00:50The prevailing rule and practice on the issue is to have all House lawmakers gather in a plenary session and then come into agreement to release their silence as per wishes of the requester.
01:01As such, Remulia has the option to convey the request or wishes to House Speaker Representative Faustina D. III so he can call for a plenary session to have his peers act on the request of voluntarily releasing their silence.
01:15Locos Norte representative and House Majority Leader Alexander Sandro Marcos has filed a piece of proposed legislation seeking a no-work, no-pay compensation arrangement for all lawmakers of the legislature in the hope it would deter absenteeism, hold legislators into greater account, and lead to wiser public fund spending.
01:38House Bill 7432 or the no-work, no-pay for members of the Congress Act mandates the amounts of wages or salaries paid to legislators be determined solely by the time they put in to their work.
01:53From the moment they enter and leave the workplace or when they attend committee hearings, plenary sessions, field inspections, project inaugurations, and perform other legislative duties.
02:05A salient and problematic feature of the prevailing labor or work laws in the legislature, which the Marcos Bill seeks to fix and improve, has lawmakers receiving their salaries whether they show up for work or not.
02:20Case in point, Senator Ronald De La Rosa's extended unexplained and unjustly paid time off, for which he has been compensated in full for his prolonged furlough or absence without leave since November last year.
02:33Clearly, De La Rosa's fully paid unscheduled and extended leaves of absence flies in the face of fairness and social justice, which needs to be rectified post-haste, especially since no one among his colleagues has bothered to remedy, let alone address, the status quo.
02:51Some of them, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's tentative choices for officials in his cabinet and federal government agencies were more controversial than capable for their intended leadership posts.
03:05So, to avoid having these nominees rejected during their confirmation in the Senate, Trump turned to the workaround option of recess appointments to put them in place in the interim.
03:15This VOA feature explains how they work.
03:21Since winning the election, President-elect Donald Trump has lined up loyalists like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pete Hegseth, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Tulsi Gabbard for top government jobs.
03:32But that doesn't automatically mean they're appointed.
03:34That's because the U.S. Senate approves or rejects nominations to top positions within the cabinet, the courts, and embassies.
03:42This is outlined in Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution as part of the country's system of checks and balances, which limits overreach of power among the branches of government.
03:54Trump's more controversial picks, like those lacking the traditional experience or having legal issues, could face intense scrutiny and struggle to get the necessary support, if they even make it to that stage.
04:07Trump's first pick for attorney general, Matt Gaetz, has forfeited his nomination amid reported pushback from senators.
04:16However, there is another way.
04:18Trump has floated the idea of using recess appointments, which allows presidents to bypass Senate approval and temporarily fill positions.
04:27This mechanism was initially designed to fill vacant federal roles when the Senate was in recess, which in earlier periods of U.S. history tended to last for months at a time.
04:50Long recesses don't happen often anymore, but presidents have continued to leverage recess appointments to fill vacant seats.
05:01Bill Clinton and George W. Bush made 310 recess appointments between them, often to low-level positions, while Barack Obama made 32 such appointments.
05:13But in 2014, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the Senate's authority by ruling that a recess must last longer than 10 days to validate recess appointments.
05:26To ensure the Senate never reaches a 10-day recess, members can hold pro-forma sessions where they enter Congress but don't conduct formal business.
05:35As a result, neither Trump in his first term nor Joe Biden made any recess appointments during their presidencies.
05:44Things may be different this time.
05:46In theory, Republican senators, if unified, could call a recess, tilting the balance of power and enabling the president-elect to fill his cabinet.
05:56Alternatively, Trump could technically adjourn both chambers of Congress and achieve a recess that way, a never-tried-before constitutional power that he has threatened to use in the past.
06:12This unprecedented route would allow Trump to appoint a slate of loyal allies without the scrutiny of a Senate confirmation process.
06:19So that's all she wrote for tonight's show.
06:25Join us anew tomorrow evening for another round of stories here and abroad breaking at the hour.
06:30Keep in mind to always stay connected by catching the news right here.
06:34This has been Ais Martinez, wishing you all a restful night ahead and thank you for watching PTV News Now.
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