Congress resumes session today

MANILA, Philippines - After a three-week recess, Congress will resume session today with the House of Representatives expected to pass on third and final reading the Aquino administration’s P1.64-trillion 2011 national budget and launch new congressional inquiries on various pressing issues, House leaders said yesterday.

The Senate, meanwhile, is optimistic that it will be able to scrutinize the budget even as it awaits the House’s transmittal of its approved version.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. is holding a meeting with some leaders of the chamber today to set the direction of the House’s work in the next several weeks.

Belmonte said he was looking forward to the resumption of session, as there are many committee hearings and pending bills that need action.

He has made it known that he decided not to watch the fight of Sarangani Rep. Manny Pacquiao against Antonio Margarito in Texas on Nov. 13 so he could steer the passage of other pending bills.

“I think it is a very critical time and I think it is necessary for me to be around,” the House leader earlier said in a telephone interview.

A small group of lawmakers during the break made some amendments to the P1.64-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) after its approval last month.

Not much details were forthcoming on the amendments, except on the insertion of special provisions that will govern the implementation of the administration’s controversial P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.

House Majority Leader and Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II disclosed that the chamber requested for a certification from President Aquino to certify the budget approval as urgent.

He said he is also awaiting reports from various House committees that have already approved some measures at their level for first reading at the plenary.

House Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, however, was not happy with the way the majority passed the budget last month.

He said the administration bloc approved the budget with “minimal changes” with the exception of the special provisions to monitor the CCT program.

“The GAB is a virtual copycat of the President’s National Expenditure Program (NEP) with no substantial amendments adopted from the submissions of House members, except the special provisions on the itemization of the P21-billion CCT and the creation of an oversight committee on the CCT as endorsed by the minority,” Lagman said in a statement.

“Whatever changes effected in budgetary allocations were at the instance of the Department of Budget and Management through a series of errata,” he said.

Of bills and budgets

Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, chairman of the House committee on higher education, earlier announced that his panel is ready to report to the plenary three measures, namely the expansion and institutionalization of the distance education program, the proposal to strengthen and institutionalize the “ladderized” education program in the country, and the measure that would extend a wide array of discounts for underprivileged students in the post-secondary and tertiary levels.

The House justice committee is also expected to start hearings on the proposed joint resolution to grant amnesty to rightist military rebels who participated in various attempts to oust then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is now representative of the second district of Pampanga.

The chamber is also scheduled to start the inquiry into the alleged cost overruns, overstatement of accounts and unliquidated cash advances in some 38 ODA-assisted projects in the last five years based on the resolutions filed by Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casiño and Ang Kasangga Rep. Teodorico Haresco.

The House committee on electoral reforms and suffrage is also set to begin a review on the various problems that beset the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections held last Oct. 25.

Senate up and ready

At the Senate, Sen. Franklin Drilon, finance committee chairman, said the Senate is waiting for the House to transmit the approved general appropriations for 2011.

Drilon said Congress is hoping to pass the budget by yearend to avoid a re-enacted budget, which had been the practice in the past Arroyo administration.

Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said the Senate will be busy with the deliberations on the third reading of the mandatory immunization for the hepatitis-B vaccine introduced by Sen. Pia Cayetano.

Sen. Loren Legarda has notified the leadership that she will deliver a privilege speech today on an important matter.

Sotto said he is also waiting for the report of Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, who chairs the Senate committee on peace and unification, on the results of the one-day public hearing on President Aquino’s amnesty proclamation for Magdalo soldiers, including detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

Sotto said he is expecting to have the amnesty proclamation on the Senate’s order of business but he has not seen nor signed the committee report.

He said the 2011 budget is still being discussed at the level of committee on finance.

Sotto said he is personally not putting the Reproductive Health Bill on the priority list. However, since there are pending bills on the matter, it will be up for debate.

“We will give the RH Bill the opportunity for debates,” said Sotto, adding that he is also supportive of provisions seeking protection of women but is totally against pushing methods for population control.

Cayetano, who chairs the Senate committee of health, said she will push through with the public hearings on the issue and hear the differing opinions of experts on the RH Bill. - With Christina Mendez