PRESIDENT Arroyo yesterday asked Congress to
hold a special session on February 19 and 20 to provide the
Senate and the House time to pass important measures which are
already in the final stages, like the anti-terrorism bill.
Gabriel Claudio, presidential adviser for
political affairs, said the President signed Proclamation Order
No. 1235 calling for the two-day special session "to pursue
final approval of the anti-terror bill and other urgent measures
already in advanced stages of legislation."
Arroyo said the credit information bureau
bill is "almost there" but was not enacted because Congress went
on recess yesterday.
She said if a special session is not held,
the measures which are already in their final stages will have
to be re-filed when Congress re-opens.
"If we start again from scratch in the next
session, what a pity. All that we’ve worked for in the last two
years would have gone to waste," she said.
Others measures that will be taken up in the
special session are the compensation for human rights violation
victims and the amendment to PD 1869 which seeks to extend
Pagcor’s franchise.
Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, incoming
presidential chief of staff, said others bills that were
ratified in the bicameral conference committee are those
strengthening the Public Attorneys’ Office and Office of the
Solicitor General.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye is confident
both chambers will be able to muster a quorum.
Bunye welcomed the passage by the Senate of
the bicameral report on the anti-terrorism bill. The House
failed to ratify it.
He said the measure "will put the Philippines
a step higher beside all nations in protecting mankind from this
scourge, even as we purge it from our own backyard through the
vigilance of our soldiers, police and communities."
National security adviser Norberto Gonzales
said critics of the anti-terrorism law should give it a chance.
Gonzales said any amendments, including
putting additional safeguards, could be introduced later.
Rep. Joel Villanueva of the party-list group
Cibac lambasted the House leadership and the majority for trying
to "sneak in" the ratification of the Pagcor measure.
Villanueva blocked passage of the Pagcor bill
Thursday night.
Assistant majority leader Arthur Defensor was
starting to read the title of the measure when Villanueva
objected that it was not in the order of business.
This forced the majority leader to suspend
the session and call the roll, which caused the adjournment for
lack of quorum.
Villanueva’s banner bill, the anti-red tape
bill, which was up for third and final reading, was also
bypassed in the process, along with the ratification of
anti-terrorism bill and other key measures.
Speaker Jose de Venecia said it might be
difficult for them to muster a quorum during the two-day special
session because of the election period but said he would try to
convince the majority to attend.
Rep. Rodolfo Plaza (NPC, Agusan del Sur), a member of the
minority, said De Venecia should first be able to whip into line
the majority members who, he said, are "absenteeism-stricken."
