I just got home form my second day at the House of Representatives (Batasan) as part of the Kabataan Party staff under the office of Rep. Mong Palatino. I’ve been getting the hang of the tasks around the office, so far.

I filed two resolutions today, then stayed at the floor of the plenary behind the congressmen, supposedly to conduct the slideshow presentation for Mong’s privilege speech. The session, however, dragged on (they debated on the rules on attendance for almost an hour, among other administrative matters) until the congressmen sneaked out of the hall one by one after the roll call. By the time majority of the seats in the session hall were empty, we decided to postpone the privilege speech for Wednesday.

Kabataan’s office is one of the makeshift offices made from the partitioning of one large empty room in the main session hall building, divided into cubicles for the newly-proclaimed party-lists. To go there, one has to go up and down several flights of stairs, through back corridors and storage areas. Such makes it a relatively tiring chore to run papers such as resolutions and other letters through the different bureaucratic offices in the vast Batasan complex. I’d say come visit us, but we don’t even have an official room number, and unless you are ushered in by an insider, you’ll surely get lost.

This is not something I treat as work. I actually feel like it’s an extension of the extra-curriculars I do while I was in UP. I’m still immersing myself with national issues with a focus on the youth sector. Obviously, legislative work has a lot to do with laws too. At least my one year and a few months in law school has some good use.

The third regular session of the fourteenth Congress will end in a few months, so my Batasan stint may not last for long, at least from how I foresee things right now. Early next year, everyone will be busy for the 2010 elections (if it pushes through). Till then!