House may extend sessions to pass key bills, including sin tax measure

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InterAksyon.com
The online news portal of TV5

The House of Representatives may choose to extend sessions until Friday if only to pass key bills pending on second and third reading, including the measure on sin taxes. 

Although sessions are held only until Wednesday, the House may inform their counterpart in the Senate that it would hold plenary activities until Friday, June 8, to finish as many things as possible, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte said on Monday.

The House will go on sine die adjournment on Friday and will be back on the fourth Monday of July for the third regular session of the 15th Congress. 

"There are a number of bills that are already on second reading. We would like to tackle as many as possible so that when we reconvene on July 7, there are a number of bills that we can already tackle on third reading. All these are best efforts,” Belmonte said. “There are a number of bills that are pending, the most important one is the so-called sin tax."

Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II earlier said that the chamber would try to pass on second and third reading the sin tax, which seeks to increase taxes of alcohol and cigarette products to generate the needed revenues for the government. 

Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin said among the measures pending on third reading are the juvenile justice bill, climate change act, reorganization of the Philippine statistical system, and the magna carta of the poor. InterAksyon.com

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