October 6, 2003, The Manila Times, Senate to tackle 22 bills, resolutions, by Sammy Martin,

October 6, 2003, The Manila Times, Senate to tackle 22 bills, resolutions, by Sammy Martin, Correspondent,

The Senate will focus its attention on 22 bills and resolutions when it resumes session today after a three-week break, the Senate majority leader, Loren Legarda, said on Sunday.

Legarda, who had quit the Lakas Party last week along with Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr., will stay on as majority leader of the Senate, according to a statement from Senate President Franklin Drilon.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, assistant majority floor leader, agrees with Legarda that the Senate will have a very busy schedule. However, he believes that there will be changes in the Senate because of Legarda’s resignation from Lakas.

One of the resolutions needing the immediate attention of the senators is Senate Resolution 338, or the Concurring in the Ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and Senate Resolution 339, or Concurring in the Ratification of the Amendment to Article 20, Paragraph 1 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Senate Bill 2115, or the proposed Clean Water Act, is expected to be passed within the week, she added.

Twenty other bills and resolutions have been scheduled for interpellations and 16 bills and 4 resolutions are expected to be approved before the year ends.

These are Senate Bill 2095, or the Securitization Act; SB 2587, or The University of the Philippines Charter of 2003; and SB 2540, or An Act to Define and Penalize Acts of Terrorism.

The other bills are SB 2395, or the Magna Carta for Senior Citizens; SB 2133, or the Creation of Department of Housing and Urban Development; SB 2132, or the Civil Service Code; SB 1945, or the Ombudsman Act; SB 1942, or Sustainable Management of Forest Resources; SB 1944, or National Land Use Policy; SB 2293, or the Revised Public Land Act of the Philippines; SB 2518, or An Act Rationalizing the Documentary Stamps of the National Internal Revenue Code; SB 2128, or An Act Regulating the Practice for Illegal Numbers Games; SB 2586, or the Optical Media Act of 2003; SB 2621, or Magna Carta of Patient’s Rights and Obligations; and SB 2629, or an amendment to Republic Act 7277, also known as the Magna Carta for Persons with Disability.

The resolutions the Senate is expected to tackle upon resuming its session are Senate Joint Resolution 12, or Approving the Reorganization Plan of the Philippine National Police; SJR 238, or the controversial issue of amending the Philippine Constitution; Senate Resolution 49, or a resolution linking former members of the defunct Philippine Antiorganized Crime Task Force, headed by then-Chief Supt. Panfilo Lacson, now a senator, to criminal activities; and SR 324, or ratifying the mutual legal assistance agreement between the Philippines and the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong.
-- Sammy Martin, Correspondent