They started their 12-year sojourn in the Senate on the heels of the second Edsa People Power Revolution in 2001 that ousted President Joseph Estrada, who was subsequently convicted for plunder.
Broken tradition, broken vows. The controversy that resulted in the Senate’s loss of two of its top leaders appears to have also claimed a long-standing tradition of the majority and the minority smoking the peace pipe as a session of Congress bows out with its sine die adjournment.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said on Thursday that he saw the past three years under the 15th Congress as a success for the House of Representatives.
The House of Representatives, having recognized all of its members and tackled pending bills, is now waiting for the Senate in order to act on measures Malacañang has urged them to take up, the most contentious being one which will create the province of Nueva Camarines.
The Senate has ratified a bill amending the Juvenile Justice Act and approved on third and final reading several measures, including a bill that seeks to lessen if not totally curb bullying among students in elementary and high schools.
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile’s resignation could have been triggered by the demolition job on him and his son, Cagayan Representative Jack Enrile, senator-elect and San Juan Representative Joseph Victor Ejercito Estrada said on Wednesday.
After taking a three-month-long break for the midterm elections, the members of the House of Representatives came back for one last session day on Wednesday.
The House of Representatives will be honoring its members during the 15th Congress when it resumes session and finally adjourns Wednesday.
Speculations are rife about the content of the privilege speech Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile is scheduled to deliver on Wednesday.
A group of dejected Catholics filed out of the plenary hall of the House of Representatives one early morning last December. The legislators had just passed the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill on second reading, the beginning of the end for the faithful followers of the Catholic Church, who fought the proposal for 10 years.
After toppling the candidate of an entrenched Camarines Sur dynasty, the province’s new congressional representative, Leni Robredo, said Wednesday the more arduous part of the job—actual work in Congress—was just about to begin.
With the elections over, Malacañang is nudging senators and congressmen to make the most of the remaining two session days of the 15th Congress by passing priority measures.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said that the 15th Congress has approved the most “game-changing laws” as it adjourned Wednesday night, to make way for the campaign period for the May elections.
