The Senate begins Wednesday, Nov. 9 floor debate on the proposed 2022 P5-trillion national budget.
This followed the adoption by the Upper House of the schedule and procedures on the conduct of floor deliberations on the budget during a caucus among senators presided by Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III.
Senator Juan Edgardo ‘’Sonny’’ M. Angara will start present the government’s spending program.
Other senators who headed sub-committees of Angara’s mother Finance committee will later open their committees to questions on the merits of the budgets of various departments in the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches of government, and of constitutional offices.
Congress leaders want to pass the proposed 2022 national spending program before they go on a Christmas break in mid-December.
Sotto said there would be committee hearings and investigations as long as they do not coincide with plenary sessions that would start from
Monday to Thursday, from morning to afternoon.
There are, however, no committee hearings or investigations scheduled this week.
Asked if there would be increased capacity at the Senate session hall because of the debate, Sotto said that there is ‘’no problem with capacity as long as entry is with SWAB PCR negative results upon entry within 72 hours.’’
Sotto told Senate reporters that they could view Senate legislative proceedings at the Facebook account because there would be no interviews at the Senate floor.
‘’;Ambush interviews are not allowed anyway, he added.
‘’But if you want, that is up to you,’’ he added.
There will be an expected increase in the number of people who will attend the budget debate.
Although the government has reduced the alert level in Metro Manila from 4 to 2, still many Senate reporters said they would not go to the Senate because of possible COVID-19 infection due to an expected large number of people who will attend the Senate budget debate.