Senate to begin 2021 budget plenary debates on Wednesday

The Senate will begin plenary deliberations on the P4.5-trillion General Appropriations Bill on Wednesday, Senator Sonny Angara said.

The chair of the Senate committee on finance said in a DWIZ interview that the committee report on the budget measure was already being finalized.

“Nitong nakaraang linggo pinafinalize natin ang budget for committee report dahil ito ang inaantay ng mga kasama natin at syempre nais nating tapusin ang budget bago matapos ang taon,” he said.

“Sa Tuesday po iisponsor namin, sa Monday i think we will tackle other bills, Tuesday sponsorship, Wednesday interpellation and debates,” Angara said.

He said he expects the entire process to take a lot of time considering many of his colleagues want to introduce amendments.

“Dito sa committee report pa lang kada senador meron ng amendments. Inaasahan natin sa period of amendments pagkatapos ng pagtatanong debate meron na naman uli. Isang round na naman ng amendments pero dito pa lang may mga napasok na inputs sila,” Angara said.

He said he couldn’t say if the bicameral conference committee would be “bloody” like in previous years.

“Hindi ko naman masabi yun ahead of time dahil tinignan ko ang amendments ng House at magaganda naman. Meron silang dinagdag for virus, health facilities. Talagang nakafocus sa health,” Angara said.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)