SENATE President Vicente Sotto III called on Malacañang Palace yesterday to certify the Senate version of the Universal Healthcare Bill as urgent.
Sotto appealed to Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea if he could recommend to President Rodrigo Duterte to certify the bill as urgent.
He noted that by Monday the Senate could approve the bill on third and final reading with the help of the certification.
“For the Universal Healthcare Package, I want to appeal to SV Bong Medialdea. I hope he is listening today: What we need is certification to make the bill as urgent because we have three days to go and on Monday we might approve the bill already. It will not fall under the three-day-rule so we hope by Wednesday we can receive the certification,” Sotto said in Filipino in an interview with DWIZ AM radio.
If the bill would be certified as urgent, the three-day-rule for the third reading and second reading would not be followed, which would allow the bill to become law sooner.