Sotto sees passage of sin tax, anti-terrorism, salary bills before yearend

Senate President Vicente Sotto III. (PRIB Photo)

MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Monday said he sees the passage of three bills before the Senate goes on break later this week.

According to Sotto, discussion on the proposed anti-terrorism act, the sin tax reform measure and the Salary Standardization Law of 2019 will most likely be done by Wednesday night.

“’Yung sin tax measure…’yung rates na lang ang pinaguusapan kung ano ang magiging rates, tapos ‘yung Human Security Act sapagkat patapos na rin ang interpellation no’n hopefully by today,” he said in an interview with dzMM.

(The sin tax measure…the only thing we have to discuss is the rates, then the Human Security Act because the period of interpellation will hopefully be done by today.)

“And then yung Salary Standardization Law. Yung tatlo ang malaki ang pag-asa na matapos by Wednesday,” he added.

(Then the Salary Standardization Law. Those three will most likely be done by Wednesday.)

In terms of bills seeking to establish a sole department of water and disaster resilience, Sotto said some senators feel the need to fix the government’s rightsizing first before the creation of another department.

The Senate is set to resume its session on January 20 next year, Sotto noted.

“Hirap dun sa dalawang departamento. Yung Department of Water tsaka Department of Disaster, e hindi pa tapos sa committee e tapos sumasabay pa ‘yun thinking ng iba sa amin na dapat ayusin muna ‘yung rightsizing ng gobyerno bago mag-create ng bagong departamento,” he said.

(We’re struggling with the creation of the two departments. The Department of Water and the Department of Disaster, it’s still at the committee level and then some of us think that the rightsizing of the government should first be fixed before a new department can be created).

Edited by JE