Senate to resume sessions next week regardless of quarantine classification —Sotto

Published August 19, 2021 12:23 PM By HANA BORDEY, GMA News

The Senate will resume sessions next week regardless of the quarantine classification in Metro Manila, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Thursday.

“We will indeed resume [whether enhance community quarantine] is extended or not,” Sotto said in a text message to reporters.

The Senate and the House of Representatives have suspended

their plenary sessions from August 6 to August 20 in light of the implementation of ECQ in Metro Manila.

Should ECQ be extended in the country’s capital, Sotto said they can adjust the time of the plenary session to an earlier time as curfew hours are being implemented during the imposition of the strictest quarantine classification.

He added that limited Senate employees will be required to physically report for work.

Asked why he came up with the decision, Sotto said they have to tackle and pass “urgent pending legislations” like the Retail Trade Liberalization, the Public Services Act, and the bill extending the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, to name a few.

Earlier today, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) is considering extending the ECQ or downgrading the quarantine classification to modified ECQ in Metro Manila.

The government placed the National Capital Region under ECQ until August 20 to prevent the transmission of the Delta coronavirus variant in the country.—AOL, GMA News

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