DAGUPAN CITY – Pangasinan Representative (fourth district) Jose de Venecia Jr. is appealing to the leadership of the two Houses of Congress (Senate and Lower House) to call for a special session to address two crises.
In this special session, they will not only be able to address the two concerns, but also can tackle his proposal to postpone the barangay elections scheduled this October 2010.
The P3.5 billion (approximately) of government fund, he said, which will be saved will be used to fight the drought that affects a lot of villages in the country.
“What we have is not energy crisis but electric power crisis. Electric power is just one of the many components of the energy system,” he explained.
“I was telling our friends that when I was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, we had an emergency caused by Mt. Pinatubo and Central Luzon was in crisis. Congress was on vacation buy I asked then President Fidel Ramos that we convene for three days. And we approved the P10 billion Mt. Pinatubo Rehabilitation Program for the entire Central Luzon,” he added.
“Why is it that now they can’t convene even for two days? The local candidates’ campaign begins only on March 26. Between now and March 26, you can convene Congress to a special session for two or three days. Diyan natin makikita sa mga congressmen at senators kung sino ang tapat sa bayan,” de Venecia remarked.
De Venecia said postponing the 2010 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections would mean savings for the country.
“We really have to postpone the barangay elections. The P3.5 billion fund savings can be utilized to fight climate change, to fight drought. The drought is causing havoc in the ricefields, in fishponds, in the fresh water ponds, in the agricultural lands, in livestocks, and it is impoverishing the farmers,” he added.
At the special session, de Venecia said all they have to do is amend that part of the election law and change the date from October 2010 to October 2011. “It is one small line in the law, that’s it. You don’t need 10 days to deliberate.”