House, Senate coordinating on legislative priorities ahead of last session

THE House of Representatives and the Senate have started coordinating on their legislative priorities ahead of the third and last regular session of the 19th Congress, Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez said Tuesday.

Speaker Romualdez told reporters that he initially discussed the two chambers’ common legislative agenda with newly installed Senate President Francis Escudero on Monday in Malacañang during the signing of the law increasing the teaching supply allowance law of public school teachers.

“Nag-agree kami ni Senate president  that even before the LEDAC na sa third week ng buwan na ‘to, mag-usap kami. Ah siyempre naman ‘yung coordiantion 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, Sen. Francis Tolentino have their own coordination.

“May coordination din (sila), so mukhang ano 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.

The leader of the 300-plus-strong House 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 Marcos Jr. and the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

“So ‘yung coordination will be particularly dito sa mga bicameral conference committees on how we reconcile the differing versions,” he added.

Speaker Romualdez 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,” he stressed.

Asked about the proposed amendments to the Constitution’s restrictive economic provisions he and his House colleagues have been advocating, the House leader said these are pending with the Senate as well.

“Siyempre isa pa rin naman na naka pending yung RBH 6 sa Senate saka yung RBH 7, so we’ll get to that,” he said.