Senate foregoes November 13-15 sessions; budget, TRAIN delayed

The Senate will have to delay the approval of the proposed tax reform bill as it decided yesterday to forego the resumption of its legislative sessions on November 13-15 – holidays due to the country’s hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit.

“No more sessions from Nov 13-15, 2017. Security measures will be too tight hence better that the entire Senate cooperates with our security authorities,” Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said.

President Duterte had already declared these dates as special non-working holidays.

Earlier, Pimentel said the Senate would hold sessions on the aforementioned dates to deliberate on the priority Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) and the proposed 2018 national budge t — two priority legislation of the administration.

However, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) announced that several routes in Pasay City and Manila would be locked down from November 8 to November 15 to pave way for the 31st ASEAN Summit activities.

Pimentel said he and Majority Floor Leader Sen. Vicente Sotto III are “still working” on the new schedule for the proposed TRAIN which awaits approval on second reading.

Sotto, in a separate text message, said, however, that they might pass the tax reform bill on third and final reading by November 24.

Meanwhile, Sotto said they will resume deliberations on P3.76- trillion proposed 2018 national budget on November 16. He said they plan to approve the priority measure also on the third week of the month.