Speaker Lord Allan Velasco is hopeful a “new era of cooperation” between the House of Representatives and the Senate is at hand as the two chambers begin to craft a common legislative agenda for the remaining 20 months of the 18th Congress.
Velasco said in a statement: “We look forward to a very good working relationship between the House and the Senate as both chambers strive to ensure the remaining sessions of the 18th Congress will be fruitful and productive.”
Velasco and Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Thursday led an informal caucus of House and Senate leaders at a hotel in Mandaluyong City.
The meeting, initiated by the Speaker, was also attended by Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto; the Senate Finance Committee chairman, Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara; House Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez; the House Committee on Appropriations chairman, Rep. Eric Yap of the party-list group ACT-CIS, and House Minority Leader Joseph Stephen Paduano.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Minority Leader Franklin Drilon also joined the meeting via videoconferencing app Webex.
“We consider the senators as vital partners, allies and friends, and we thank the Senate leadership for this productive meeting,” Velasco said.
The leaders of both chambers agreed to come up with common legislative priority targets for the next five months in accordance with the agenda set out by President Rodrigo Duterte in his State of the Nation Address last July, with additional inputs from the House and the Senate.
Included in the President’s legislative agenda are the proposed Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises or CREATE Act, Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer or FIST Act, Rural Agricultural and Fisheries Development Financing System Act, and the bill creating the Department of Overseas Filipinos.
“The President, in his remaining years as our Chief Executive, can rely on Congress to help him fulfill his promises to our people before his term ends,” Velasco said.
The leaders of both chambers met ahead of the scheduled resumption of session of the House on November 16.
“We take seriously his call to put an end to systemic corruption, and we will work together with our fellow lawmakers to come up with legislation to help overseas workers, farmers and fishermen,” he added.
Velasco said the House also requested the Senate to prioritize the proposed Magna Carta of Barangay Workers to support barangay frontliners, as well as the proposed Internet Transactions Act that seeks to protect consumers, especially with the increase in online transactions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Velasco leadership got off to a good start with its relationship with the Senate following the early transmittal of the House-approved 2021 General Appropriations Bill to the upper chamber.
Velasco expressed confidence the GAB would be passed by both houses of Congress and signed into law by Duterte before the yearend to prevent a reenacted spending program that could slow economic growth and hamper the delivery of government services.
“The House and Senate leaderships were both in agreement that the national budget should be approved as soon as possible,” Velasco said.
“We have a good working relationship with the Senate, and everyone is united,” Velasco said. “We are confident that we can pass responsive laws that will help our countrymen rise above this pandemic before the year ends.”