SENATOR Loren Legarda is the new head of the Senate finance committee, Senate President Franklin Drilon said on Monday.
“Senator Legarda has been elected as chairman of the finance committee,” Drilon told reporters after an all-senators caucus.
Legarda will take the place of Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who resigned last week from the committee chairmanship “out of delicadeza.”
Escudero, meanwhile, will take over the chairmanship of the environment committee vacated by Legarda.
READ: Citing ‘delicadeza,’ Escudero quits as head of 2 finance panels
Drilon said the committee would probably start its hearings on the proposed 2016 national budget by August 17.
“We have committed that we will pass the budget before the end of the session in December so that we can have the budget in place by 2016,” he said.