SENATE leaders foresee an uphill battle for the divorce bill in the Senate, even as an alternative option is being seriously mulled over by lawmakers.
“Most probably dissolution of marriage instead,” Senate President Tito Sotto III said in a text message to BusinessMirror when asked whether senators can muster a majority vote to swing approval of a divorce bill.
The Senate President signalled an emerging consensus favoring the alternative bill on dissolution of wedding vows, rather than divorce.
He added that the dissolution bill would provide “expanded and easier annulment procedures,” but did not go into details.
Asked about the prospects of the divorce bill, Sen. Joel Villanueva confirmed he was “definitely against” the controversial measure that still had to be reported out for plenary consideration.
“The bill is still in the committee level,” Villanueva said, adding, “once it reaches the plenary we will be ready to defend the proposed measure.”
Sen. Richard Gordon projected an uphill battle to muster enough votes to swing passage of the bill in the Senate.
“Mahihirapan [It’ll be rough sailing],” Gordon said, indicating a tough task ahead for advocates, should the divorce bill be reported for plenary consideration when sessions resume November 4.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives earlier approved a congressional calendar for this year which mandates both chambers of Congress to conduct sessions from November 4 until December 20, 2019.
Congress will adjourn from December 21 to January 19, 2020. It will then reconvene regular sessions from January 20, 2020, to March 13, 2020, then go on recess anew from March 14, 2020, to May 3, 2020; reconvene sessions anew from May 4, 2020, to June 5, 2020, before going on sine die adjournment from June 6, 2020, to July 26, 2020.