Senate takes pride in approving 21 bills

MANILA, Philippines - Despite having spent most of its time in the past four months as an impeachment court, the Senate has managed to approve 21 bills – including urgent and priority measures – on third and final reading since the start of the year, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said yesterday.

The trial of former chief justice Renato Corona took 44 session days. The impeachment court, led by Enrile, voted on May 29 to declare Corona guilty of betraying public trust by failing to fully disclose his wealth in his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth.

“In closing, permit me to make a confession. With candor, I will admit that this Second Regular Session has been the most challenging that I have had to lead, and mostly in part because of the impeachment,” Enrile said.

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III also said he was “very satisfied” with the output of the chamber in the past months.

The approved measures include two bills that aim to strengthen the country’s anti-money laundering laws.

The Senate has also adopted a total of 17 resolutions on third reading since the start of the year.

“As chairman of the committee on rules, I am very satisfied with the production or output for the entire year,” Sotto said.

“What happened is that we went triple time with our work and this was very difficult for us. We have more white hairs now,” Sotto said in Filipino.

In its last session day yesterday, the Senate approved more than 30 bills on second reading, most of which were local bills that originated from the House of Representatives.

Among those bills approved on second reading were the ones creating 70 additional regional trial courts and nine municipal trial courts nationwide.

The Senate also ratified treaties, namely the social security convention with Spain, the consular agreement with China and the mutual legal assistance treaties between the Philippines and China and the United Kingdom.

During the impeachment trial, the Senate only held legislative sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings because it had to spend the rest of the day as an impeachment court.

Statistics from the Legislative Bills and Index Service as of May 30 showed that the Senate has also acted upon 283 other measures filed since July 2010.