Senate to prioritize rightsizing bill – Sotto
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2019 06:37:44 +0000
THE passage of the rightsizing bill to streamline government functions and reduce the bloated bureaucracy will be a priority in the Senate, its President Vicente Sotto 3rd said on Tuesday.
The veteran senator stressed this after President Rodrigo Duterte during his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) called on the 18th Congress to enact the rightsizing measure to avoid duplicity of government functions.
However, the President also pressed Congress for the creation of a Department of Overseas Filipino Workers, Department of Disaster Resiliency, and Department of Water Management.
Asked whether the Senate would focus first on the passage of rightsizing bill, Sotto said, “Oo. ‘Yun naman ay personal idea ko. Na-i suggest ko na sa kanila (Yes. That is actually my personal idea. I already suggested it to them [fellow senators].”
“Kung hindi tayo magra- rightsizing, blinow-up lang natin ‘yung bureaucracy lalo (If we will not rightsize, we’ll end up bloating the bureaucracy further),” Sotto said in a chance interview.
He said that 65 percent of over P2 trillion of the P3.757 trillion 2019 national budget was allotted to personnel services or salaries of government workers.
He added, “Meron kaming plano na next week ay meron na kaagad na mini-Ledac. Tapos tuloy kaagad sa main Ledac. Isa ‘yun sa mga itutulak ko kaagad (We’re planning that by next week, we’ll have a mini-Ledac [Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council]. Then, we’ll proceed to the main Ledac. I will push for that immediately).” BERNADETTE E. TAMAYO
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