What this is
PumasokBa tracks whether senators of the 20th Congress show up. Every number here is derived from the official Senate journals — the chamber's own minutes — and links back to the source so you can check it yourself. We add no opinion: only what the documents say.
How attendance is counted
- A senator is present if their name appears in a journal's roll call, or if the journal later notes them present (e.g. “Senator Go was also present”).
- Everyone among the 24 not recorded present that session is counted absent.
- When a journal gives an official reason for an absence — official mission, illness, or abroad-with-permission — we mark the day excused (yellow on the senator's calendar). An excused day is not counted as an absence: it is set aside, so the percentage is sessions present ÷ sessions they were expected (total minus excused). A senator away on official business is not penalised.
- A senator's percentage = sessions present ÷ sessions held during their membership, excluding any excused days.
- Each journal is validated so that present + absent = all 24 senators.
The grade scale
The grade label is always shown alongside its colour, so the meaning never depends on colour alone.
Why our numbers may differ from the news
News outlets sometimes disagree with each other on absence counts. Rather than pick a side, we re-derive every figure from the primary journals and show you the source. Where our numbers differ from a published tally, the journal is the record.
Identifying senators
Journals print names in many forms and with occasional typos. We match every name to a single canonical list of the 24 senators using a fixed set of aliases. Genuinely ambiguous bare surnames (for example “Cayetano”, “Villar”, or “Tulfo” with no initials) are never guessed — they're set aside for manual review instead.
Current coverage
This early version reflects the Senate journals ingested so far. As more sessions of the 1st Regular Session are added, the percentages will settle.
Photos
Senator portraits come from Wikimedia Commons — official government photos that are in the public domain. Per-image sources and licences are listed in our photo credits. Where a photo is missing, the senator's initials are shown instead.
Source
Senate of the Philippines Legislative Information System: journals index. All documents are public government records.