House of Representatives (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)



A subcommittee led by Senior Deputy Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Sandro Marcos is recommending the continued observance of hybrid plenary sessions in the House of Representatives. This was bared by House Minority Leader and 4Ps Party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan in a chance interview Monday morning, May 8 on the sidelines of the flag-raising ceremony with House employees. "Nasa hybrid pa rin tayo dahil nakikita natin yung necessity at advantage. Nakikita po natin, may surge na naman ng Covid so nasa hybrid pa rin tayo (We're still in the hybrid set-up because we see both the necessity and advantage. We see that there's another surge in Covid, so we're still in the hybrid set-up),' he explained. Libanan said he is also part of this subcommittee, which is dubbed the subcoommittee on rules rewriting. Its mother committee is the House Committee on Rules chaired by Majority Leader and Zamboanga City 2nd district Rep. Mannix Dalipe. "Sa subcommittee level na pinamumunuan ni Cong. Sandro Marcos, kasama po ako doon ay napagkaisahan na po namin (We have come to an agreement at the subcommittee level headed by Cong. Sandro Marcos, I'm part of it as well)," he noted. "Sa subcommittee level may recomendaation na po kami pero aaprubahan pa po ito ng Committee on Rules (There's a recommendation at the subcommittee but it still needs to be approved by the Committee on Rules)," he added. After that, the measure would have to be approved for the final time by the House plenary. It can be recalled that the three-member Makabayan bloc earlier filed House Resolution (HR) No.859, which calls for the return of full face-to-face plenary sessions in the lower chamber. Under a hybrid set-up, the House members are allowed to join plenary sessions by either physical or virtual attendance via video conferencing. "Pwede tayong mag-Zoom at mag join dito ng kanya-kanyang convenience lang po muna yan hangga’t mawala totally itong threat ng Covid sa atin (We can use Zoom and join according to one's convenience until the threat of Covid completely disappears),"Libanan said. "At napagkaisahan po namin, though some of the member of the Makabayan bloc gusto nilang ibalik ito sa regular na...pero ako mismo, sinabi ko baka kailangan pa rin yung hybrid dahil delikado pa rin ang panahon (We've reached an agreement, though some members of the Makabayan bloc want to bring it back to the regular set-up...but me personally, I said we might still need the hybrid because these are still dangerous times)," he explained. The militant lawmakers want to bring back full face-to-face plenary sessions to pave the way for more exhaustive deliberations in the lower chamber.