Senate starts marathon session for 2018 national budget

Sen. Vicente “Tito” Sotto III (File photo from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)

The Senate is scheduled to hold its marathon plenary session in the afternoon of Thursday up until 12 midnight to meet the target passage date of the proposed P3.8-trillion 2018 national budget, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said.

“They (senators) are willing to end up even until 12 midnight,” Sotto said.

The senators are set to deliberate on the budgets of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of National Defense, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, Dangerous Drugs Board, Film Development Council of the Philippines, and Presidential Commission for the Urban Poor.

Sotto said the senators had set the passage of the national budget on Dec. 15.

Sotto said Minority Leader Franklin Drilon had agreed to shorten to 30 minutes his interpellation of the budget.

The majority leader said the budget amendments would then be taken up on Nov. 20 to 21, or 23 at the most.

The proposed 2018 General Appropriations Act is up 12.4 percent from this year’s budget of P3.35 trillion. /jpv

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