House takes a break in response to employees’ pleas, to resume session Monday

The House of Representatives will not be holding its session on Wednesday to give employees of the chamber a break amid the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Metro Manila, Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said Tuesday.

In a statement, Romualdez said the House will be suspending session until Monday, August 17 "in response to clamor from House employees who report to work regularly despite the recent upsurge of COVID 19 cases in Metro Manila."

"The session break will give ample time for a thorough disinfection of all offices and facilities in the House of Representatives and give employees a brief respite from the aggravation caused by the spike in COVID cases," he added.

Romualdez said the House leadership decided to suspend Wednesday's session after the chamber approved on the third and final reading the proposed Bayanihan to Recover As One Act and four other national bills that are part of the government's response measures against COVID-19.

"The session break will also enable the various committees of the House of Representative to fast-track the reporting out of all COVID-related measures for plenary consideration when we resume session," he added.

Buhay party-list Representative Lito Atienza earlier said he wrote to Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano in which he stressed the need for the House to take a break after they have approved all urgent COVID-19 and economic relief measures.

He argued that continuing to hold sessions even in the face of COVID-19 endangers the lives of House employees and puts at risk the quality of legislation they pass.

A total of 40 cases of COVID-19 have so far been officially reported at the House, three of which have died.

On Tuesday afternoon, it was confirmed that Senior Citizens party-list Representative Francisco Datol Jr. died of acute respiratory distress due to COVID-19.

As of August 11, a total of 139,538 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the Philippines, with 2,312 deaths and 68,432 recoveries. — BM, GMA News