House of Representatives to resume sessions on Aug. 23

House of Representatives (INQUIRER file photo / Niño Jesus Orbeta)

MANILA, Philippines — After the two-week suspension due to the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila, the House of Representatives will resume plenary sessions on Monday.

“We will tackle as many bills and resolutions as possible to make up for the time lost during the ECQ,” Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said in a statement on Sunday.

The House will resume plenary sessions in a hybrid setup, based on a memorandum recently released by Secretary General Mark Llandro Mendoza.

Sessions will be held from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., with only the speaker, majority leader, and minority leader or their designated deputies or representatives, and some secretariat personnel in attendance at the session hall.

Other House members shall be present through videoconference.

Velasco added that deliberations on the P5.024-trillion 2022 national budget will start once the lower chamber receives the Executive Department’s submission of the national expenditure program (NEP).

The deliberations will be facilitated by the House Committee on Appropriations, chaired by ACT-CIS party-list Representative Eric Yap.

“We are ready to carry out our constitutional duty of carefully scrutinizing the NEP and eventually pass a national budget that is truly reflective and responsive to the needs of Filipinos as COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on people’s lives and the economy,” Velasco said.

During the two-week ECQ, the strictest quarantine classification, all meetings were held through videoconference. Secretariat personnel with very essential tasks were permitted to physically report to the office.

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