‘House to muster quorum for session’

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. expressed confidence yesterday the House of Representatives could muster a quorum when Congress convenes in special session on May 29.

Belmonte told the weekly Friday Balitaan at the Rembrandt Hotel in Quezon City that most congressmen who ran in the May 14 elections had won.

"They will therefore come back to perform a continuing duty to the people," he said.

Malacañang has announced that President Arroyo would call lawmakers to a special session before the end of the month. As of yesterday, however, the President had not yet signed the necessary proclamation.

In any event, Congress is resuming its regular session on June 4.

The planned agenda for the special session is the proposal to enact a P10.9-billion supplemental budget and the controversial Omnibus Power Bill that would pave the way for the sale of the National Power Corp. (Napocor).

The P10.9 billion would be added to the 2000 outlay which under the law was re-enacted last Jan. 1 with the failure of Congress to approve the 2001 budget.

The bulk of the additional funds would be used to pay the five percent salary increase of the more than one million government personnel.

Belmonte earlier assured these workers that the House would approve the proposed supplemental budget once Congress is called to a special session.

As for the controversial power bill, many sectors are opposing it since there is no guarantee that the cost of electricity would go down even if Napocor is sold to private investors.

In a recent video-conference with Hong Kong investors, the President said her administration would work for the final approval of the long-delayed measure that would also restructure the power industry.