BY JP LOPEZ and WENDELL VIGILIA

CONGRESS resumes today with the Senate tackling the issue of rice and food sufficiency while the House of Representatives deliberates on Malacañang’s proposal to treat the Kalayaan Island Group and Scarborough Shoal as "regime of islands" instead of being part of the country’s archipelagic baseline.

Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said the Senate will look at measures to solve the rice crisis, such as more irrigation systems and rehabilitation and repair of existing ones, providing more subsidies to rice farmers in terms of high yielding palay, hybrid seeds, fertilizer, pesticide and post-harvest facilities, and expanding the land areas for palay planting.

"I favor direct selling by barangay-operated units. They know the people of these communities. Of course, there should be no politics in meeting the rice needs of the people," he said.

Pimentel stressed the importance of stepping up the campaign against hoarding and profiteering in the rice business by people with access to government offices having to do with rice trading.

The House foreign affairs panel chaired by Rep. Antonio Cuenco (Lakas, Cebu) is scheduled to convene at 10 a.m.

"The House is once again caught in a difficult situation. I think it will give in to the (Palace) pressure," said a senior administration congressman.

Speaker Prospero Nograles said he wants Malacañang to guarantee Congress that its position on House Bill 3216 will not endanger the country’s claim on the territory. "Malacañang can be right but it can also be wrong. We have to be very careful about this."

HB 3216 seeks to draw up the archipelagic baselines of the Philippines that will include the disputed Spratly islands and Scarborough Shoal as part of the national territory.

Pimentel urged the Senate to support his position to adopt HB 3216 in its entirety.

Pimentel said he expects the Cheaper Medicines Bill to be approved as the bicameral committee has apparently reached a compromise by allowing doctors to write the commercial brands of medicines alongside their generic brand.

The House is expected to disclose its position before the next bicameral meeting on Wednesday. The details of the proposal will be formally presented and tackled at that meeting.

Pimentel said the Senate will also tackle corruption and extra-judicial killings; extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP); abolition of the Sangguniang Kabataan; the Supreme Court ruling on the issue of executive privilege; the August 11 election in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao; Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement; and, federalism.

For its part, the House will tackle proposals to cushion the impact of the rice shortage and the rising prices of basic commodities; bills extending the CARP life; exempting minimum wage workers from paying income tax; and the P125 across-the-board wage increase.