Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III. (File photo by CATHY MIRANDA / INQUIRER.net)
Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Saturday called on Malacañang Palace to certify the Senate version of the Universal Healthcare Bill as urgent.
Sotto appealed to Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea if he could recommend to President Rodrigo Duterte to certify the bill as urgent.
He noted that by Monday the Senate could approve the bill on third and final reading with the help of the certification.
“Yung Universal Healthcare Package, gusto ko na tawagan si SV Bong Medialdea sana nakikinig sila ngayon: Kailangan namin ng cetification na urgent kasi three days to go baka sa Monday maipasa na namin yan. Di na papasok sa three-day-rule so baka kailangan sa Wednesday makuha namin,” Sotto sain in an interview with AM radio station DWIZ.
[For the Universal Healthcare Package, I want to appeal to SV Bong Medialdea. I hope he is listening today: What we need certification to make the bill as urgent because we have three days to go and on Monday we might approve the bill already. It will not fall under the three-day-rule so we hope by Wednesday we can receive the certification.]
If the bill would be certified as urgent, the three-day-rule for the third reading and second reading would not be followed, which would allow the bill to become law sooner.
Sotto also clarified that he could not directly contact the President, which was why he was appealing to the Medialdea, who ciykd also sign the certification for Duterte.
“Hindi nagse-cellphone yun. Hindi natatawagan ng diretso yun kahit yung asawa nun,” he said.
[Duterte does not use any cellphone. He cannot be directly contacted, not even by his wife.]
The Universal Healthcare Bill aims to replace the National Health Insurance Program, or Philhealth. and instead offer universal health care coverage and benefits from the National Health Security Program.
READ: Ejercito aiming to have Universal Health Bill passed in September
Last July 10, Duterte certified as urgent the House of the Representatives version of the bill.
The Senate version, however, remained pending due to funding issues. /atm