Jinggoy asks PNoy to replace PLLO chief

MANILA, Philippines - Acting Senate President Jinggoy Estrada urged  President Aquino on Thursday to replace current Presidential Legislative Liason Office (PLLO) Sec. Manuel Mamba to ensure better coordination between the executive and legislative branches in the 16th Congress.

Estrada noted that Mamba is unable to even pay a courtesy call since his designation in 2010.

“It should be standard for the head of the PLLO [to be] in good terms with the head of the Senate, with the Senate president.   But we had lack of coordination,” Estrada said.

Estrada stressed his point when asked why the President had to veto over 70 bills over the past years.

He recalled that he first saw Mamba when the latter attended a caucus at the height of the deliberations on the sin tax measure last year.  “The PLLO head should touch base with the senators,” he said.

Estrada noted that it takes a lot of effort to pass a bill, which undergoes public hearings and consultations, and studies.    When a law if vetoed, all efforts in passing a measure goes to waste, he said.

Earlier, senators Ferdinand Marcos Jr, and Vicente Sotto III also called on the need for better coordination between the executive and legislative branches to avoid wastage of bills passed by Congress, but later vetoed by the President.