MANILA – The House of Representatives and the Senate have started coordinating on their legislative priorities ahead of the 3rd and last regular session of the 19th Congress.
In a media interview in San Mateo, Rizal on Tuesday, Speaker Martin Romualdez said he initially discussed their common legislative agenda with newly installed Senate President (SP) Francis Escudero on Monday in Malacañang during the signing of the law increasing the teaching supply allowance of public school teachers.
“Nag-agree kami ni (We agreed with) Senate President that even before the LEDAC (Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council) na sa third week ng buwan na ‘to, mag-usap kami (that in the third week of this month, we will talk). Ah siyempre naman, ‘yung (Of course, the) coordination between SP and myself of course, we have each other’s numbers,” he said.
He said House Majority Leader Jose Manuel Dalipe and his Senate counterpart, Senator Francis Tolentino, have their own coordination.
“So mukhang (it’s like) we’re on our way. We will allow the Senate to fully organize itself or reorganize itself and the common legislative agenda will be outlined as well as the priority legislation,” he said.
Romualdez said Escudero and the other new leaders of the Senate are aware that the House had already passed all the priority measures of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
“So the coordination will be particularly dito sa mga (here in the) bicameral conference committees on how we reconcile the differing versions,” he added.
He pointed out that he and his colleagues would also “just await the Senate in prioritizing which of the local legislations that we have also passed and transmitted to the Senate will be acted upon.”
“Pero maganda po naman ang usapan natin ni Senate President (But my discussion with the Senate President is fine),” he said.
Asked about the proposed amendments to the Constitution’s restrictive economic provisions he and his House colleagues have been advocating, he said “these are pending with the Senate as well.”
The 3rd regular session of Congress will open on July 22, also the third State of the Nation Address of the President. (PNA)
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