With only a few months before the start of the campaign period for the May 2019 midterm elections, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III yesterday said it is imperative for all members of the Senate to submit their top three priority measures for the third regular session of the 17th Congress.
“That will be August, practically very few days in September and then October, November and half of December,” said Sotto.
He said that it was proposed that they work until Dec. 21, unlike the previous years when they only worked until Dec. 15.
“This time the proposal is until Dec. 21 because when we resume after the Christmas break in January, what will happen is that we will only be convening for proximately for two weeks because of the campaign period and the Senate is more or less, in that perspective, that filing for certificates for candidacy will be on October and the campaign period will be called in February,” related Sotto.
“Of course, there are other visions or other ideas by other legislators but that’s a different story. What the Senate is working on is what we have in paper and what is being practiced in this 1987 Constitution,” added Sotto.
With the submissions, Sotto said they will be able to formalize the priority measures of the senators.
“Put it against the …or together with the priority measures of the House and then compare it also to the priority measures of the Executive, and hopefully, we will be able to come up with a common priority agenda for the 3rd Regular Session of the 17th Congress,” he said.
Sotto expects President Rodrigo Duterte to enumerate his achievements in the last two years.
“I understand there were pre-Sona meetings that they made and these were briefings of the different departments, what they did and what they’re doing,” said Sotto.
In the Senate, he said “the agenda would most probably be the approval of the different…the convening of course, first the convening of the 3rd Regular Session of the 17th Congress and then the agenda will contain the different resolutions calling for the session and that the President be informed that we are in session and that Congress be informed that the Senate is in session and then another resolution informing the President that we are ready to listen to his State-Of-The-Nation Address and that will be done in the afternoon.”
He said they are also going to ratify the bicameral conference committee report on Organic Law for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao.