Ghosts of Dead Solons Haunt Congress
Rey T. Sibayan
November 1, 2005
Proof of Life after Death. This is my immediate conclusion when I read an article about the hauntings of dead solons sometime in November 1992.
It is reported that “before the start of a regular session of the Ninth Congress, Rep. Vicente Tagle (Peasant Sector) recalled that fellow sectoral Rep. Datu Joseph Sibug (Cultural Communities) wanted to deliver a privileged speech and even showed him a draft of the speech. At the roll call, Sibug was declared present.”
The paper (The Manila Times) further reported, that “during that time, solons see nothing wrong about that, except at the time Tagle was supposed to be talking with Sibug, the latter had been confined since early in the morning at the intensive care unit of the Philippine Heart Center. He died sometime later.”
But at the roll call at the start of the session, Sibug was declared present. Many questions raised when the solons learned the truth about the incident.
Who was present during the regular session that day at the House of Representatives? How could a comatose person at an ICU be at the session hall at the same time? This mystery has never been explained.
To this day, Tagle maintains that he had indeed talked with Sibug. He persistently rejects insinuations that he merely imagined the presence of Sibug, a friend and a seatmate at the session hall. He said that other congressmen even greeted Sibug.
Tagle recalled that he developed goose pimps when he learned that Sibug died that same afternoon. His family said Sibug could not have possibly gone to the House, because he was gravely ill.
It is also reported that Sibug was not the only dead congressman marked present during the roll call at the session hall.
Rep. Elias Lopez Sr. of Davao City was credited by the House Journal with having attended all 61 session days of the Third Regular Session of the Tenth Congress from July 28, 1997, to February 28, 1998. Yet he was already dead in January 1998, weeks before the last session day.
The attendance of Lopez, however, could be easily explained. This was not due to the presence of his spirit at the session hall but to the then common practice of the House of dispensing with the roll call of members. Consequently, all members of the House were marked present, including the dead Lopez.
