Sotto sets meeting with Speaker Velasco over SONA, priority bills

Senate President Vicente Sotto III is set to meet with Speaker Lord Allan Velasco on Tuesday, June 1, to tackle Congress priority measures and the upcoming State of the Nation Address (SONA).

“I’ll be meeting with the Speaker on Tuesday, June 1,” Sotto said in a text message to GMA News Online.

Among the matters to be discussed are the arrangements for President Rodrigo Duterte’s last SONA and the measures that the 18th Congress will prioritize.

However, Sotto did not give a categorical answer when pressed if the proposed Bayanihan 3 Bill is among the measures they will immediately act on.

He only mentioned a virtual Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council meeting they conducted on Wednesday morning.

He said the measures that will be prioritized are the same bills that the Senate had laid out, which include:

• the creation of the Department for Overseas Filipinos;
• Hybrid Election Act;
• the creation of a Disease Prevention and Control Authority;
• National Land Use Act;
• E-Governance Act;
• Boracay Island Development Authority;
• National Housing Development Act;
• the amendment to Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016; and
• Internet Transactions Act.

Also among lawmakers' priority measures are:

• the proposed Military and Uniformed Personnel Services Separation, Retirement, and Pension Act;
• amendments to the Retail Trade Liberalization Act of 2000;
• Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers;
• increasing age of statutory rape;
• Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act;
• amendments to Public Service Act;
• Potable Water Supply for Every Barangay; and
• the creation of the Presidential Drug Enforcement Agency

Meanwhile, the bill seeking to create a Department of Overseas Filipinos, which was renamed in the Senate version to Department of Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos (DMWOF), is already in the plenary for debates.

Moreover, the bills amending the Public Service Act and Retail Trade Liberalization Act of 2000 are already nearing their third reading approval. —LBG, GMA News