SENATORS cramming to pass the P3.3-trillion 2017 budget bill are looking to ratify Philippine membership in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) this week to meet a December 31 deadline for joining AIIB as a founding member with access to special funding for development projects.
Majority Leader Vicente C. Sotto III said the awaited plenary vote formally ratifying the Philippines’s AIIB entry documents may be “inserted” in the Senate’s marathon sessions by midweek, amid its tight schedule to fast-track the approval of the budget bill as Congress is set to adjourn for a four-week Christmas recess by December 16.
Sotto indicated over the weekend that the senators, currently tied up with the budget deliberations, have yet to fix the target date for plenary voting on the AIIB agreement.
“No schedule yet,” Sotto told the BusinessMirror over the weekend. But he hastened to add it could be accommodated in their Wednesday’s session agenda.
“Puwedeng isingit, baka Wednesday.” Senate sources said the Committee on Foreign Affairs is rushing to meet the December 31 deadline to ratify the AIIB agreement before the Christmas break of Congress.
It was learned that during the Aquino administration, the Executive Department submitted the AIIB papers to the Senate on February 2016, but since elections were approaching, the documents were archived. Sources confided to the BusinessMirror that the Duterte administration submitted the measure “just last month, kaya medyo naghahabol sa Senate.”
The Beijing-led AIIB was first conceived in 2013 to “promote interconnectivity and economic integration in the Asian region” and foster cooperation with existing multilateral development banks, with the Philippines listed as 57th founding member-country after executing the Articles of Agreement of AIIB signed by then Philippine Ambassador to China Erlinda Basilio.