, MaY 23, 2019
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ormer President and now
Speaker Gloria Macapagal-
Affoyo on wednesday called
on the Senate to join the
flouse of RePresentatives in tak-
ing a last ditch effort at passing the
remainder of President Duterte's
legislative agenda for the outgoing
17th Congress.
with less than three weeks to
spare before the current Congress
closes, Arroyo sent a letter to Sen-
ate President Vicente Sotto III re-
minding him and senators about thd
pending 1l priority bills still awaiting
action in the Upper Chamber.
Arroyo said she is lookingforward
to the actioh of the Senate on the 11
priority bills which are still pending
in the Upper Chamber.
The former chief executive said
the 11 legislative proposals were
strongly supported by the Lower
I{ouse and immediately sent to the
Senate upon third reading approval.
'As for the eleven (tl) pending
passage 0f I1 priority bills appr%ved hy House
bills in the Presidenf's priority legis- rAqe-tttl
lative agenda, we await the action of
the Senate and stand ready to adopt
the Senate version in the interest of
speedy legislation," she said.
Arroyo pointed out that the House
re-introduced a bill on the creation
of the Coconut Industry ltust Fhnd
which she hopes would "conform
more to the policy direction of the
Executive and thus constitutes
our main priority for our last three
weeks' work in the House of Repre-
sental,ives."
The bill had previously been
passed by both the Lower House
and the Senate but wds vetoed by
President Duterte.
In the same letter to Sotto, Speak-
er Arroyo also said she considers
it an honor to have worked with
senators to carry out the legislative
agenda of President Duterte.
"It has been an honor doing leg-
islative work with you," Arroyo said,
notwithstanding the feud between
the Senate and the House over the
2019 national budget.