SPEAKER Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said on Monday that the leadership of the 16th Congress will continue to meet to ensure the passage of its legislative priorities.
Belmonte said Congress leaders will meet regularly to identify the common legislative priorities of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
“Until our next meeting after the brief recess, these priority measures will be our focus,” the speaker said.
Congress will go on recess from October 10 to November 2. The session will again resume on November 3 to December 18.
The third and last regular session of the 16th Congress is expected to be cut short because of the elections in May next year.
“The choice of priorities were determined based on their advanced stage in the legislative process, therefore making their passage more achievable,” Belmonte said.
“This also veers away from traditionally giving full focus to the passage of the General Appropriations Act alone. Congress feels there are other equally urgent measures that can benefit our people,” he added.
Late last week, Belmonte and Senate President Franklin Drilon identified the two chambers priority measures in the next five weeks or before their October 10 break.
Quorum
A SENIOR member of the House Minority Bloc, meanwhile, expressed hopes that the quorum in the House of Representatives will further improve in the coming weeks to enable the House leadership to fast-track the approval of several priority measures on the legislative table.
Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Rodolfo T. Abano III of Isabela urged his fellow lawmakers to cooperate with the House leadership in addressing the quorum problem to ensure the passage of vital legislative measures on time.
“We are the representatives of the people and we have to show our constituents that we fulfill religiously our constitutional duties by diligently attending plenary sessions and committee hearings of the House of Representatives,” Albano, House contingent head for the Minority Bloc to the Commission on Appointments, said.
He lamented that the quorum problem plaguing the House leadership in the past weeks have prevented lawmakers from holding plenary sessions, thus resulting in the delay of pending measures.
Albano hopes that the idea broached by Belmonte. and House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales Jr. to hold sessions from Monday to Friday would effectively fast-track and secure the approval of priority bills identified as urgent by Senate and House leaders in a meeting recently.