Senate President Vicente Sotto III Decides To Extend Senate Session Hour For 2019 Budget
SOTTO – Senate President Vicente Sotto III decides to extend the Senate session hour due to the upcoming 2019 budget which amounts to ₱3.757 trillion.
Previously, the Senate President pushed to make December 8 (Saturday) to be a non-working holiday. This was after President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed the Republic Act No. 10966 last December 28. Sotto emphasized that the “Philippines is a predominantly Catholic nation by reason of the 300 years of Spanish rule”.
Recently, he resolved to extend the session hours of the Senate for the pending 2019 national budget.
According to him, in the next days, the session will begin at 10:00 AM but may last long until daybreak. sotto further added that Fridays, which is supposed to be the Senate’s unoccupied day, will be used for budget deliberation.
Senator Vicente Sotto privilege speech at the Senate on irregularities that have transpired on May 2016, which allegedly “altered” the results of the 2016 National Elections.
EDWIN BACASMAS
Photo uplifted from: Inquirer
A report from Bombo Radyo says that the Senate President admitted that they may not proceed to push the General Appropriations Bill before the end of year 2018. He further blamed the congress for the slow transmission of the proposed national funds.
He noted having a version of Kamara in the budget, only to be withdrawn afterwards. Sen. Panfilo Lacson said thatthey will try to catch up with the bill before the end of the period. Lacson further added that they may cancel things like lunch, going to the washroom, etc. in order for them to achieve the target.
As per the report, in the end, the 2019 budget will fall to reenactment due to the long process, and it may yet to be approved to the bicameral conference committee.
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