{"id":256826,"date":"2020-06-02T07:07:36","date_gmt":"2020-06-02T11:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=256826"},"modified":"2020-06-02T07:07:36","modified_gmt":"2020-06-02T11:07:36","slug":"congress-needs-special-session-to-extend-dutertes-special-powers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/06\/02\/congress-needs-special-session-to-extend-dutertes-special-powers\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress needs special session to extend Duterte\u2019s special powers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte holds a meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on May 11, 2020. ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Congress may hold a special session during recess to extend the emergency powers granted to President Rodrigo Duterte amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque stated in a virtual presser aired on state-run PTV-4 as he acknowledged that lawmakers are running out of time to tackle the possible extension of Duterte\u2019s special powers to allow him to continue boosting government\u2019s efforts to fight Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cPapa<\/em>-adjourn\u00a0na po kasi ang<\/em>\u00a0Congress (Congress will adjourn soon), let\u2019s face it.\u00a0Parang kung kinakailangan talagang maipasa iyan sa lalong mabilis na panahon, baka kinakailangang mag<\/em>-special session\u00a0kasi pa-<\/em>adjourn\u00a0na po ang<\/em>\u00a0Congress (If this [plan to extend Duterte\u2019s emergency powers] needs to be passed in the soonest time possible, Congress may need to hold a special session),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Under Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, Duterte is authorized to use emergency powers to stop the further spread of Covid-19 in the country.<\/p>\n

RA 11469, which Duterte signed on March 23, takes effect for only three months unless extended by Congress.<\/p>\n

However, Congress is set to adjourn sine die on June 5 and will resume session when Duterte delivers his fifth State of the Nation Address on July 26.<\/p>\n

Roque acknowledged that lawmakers might need to pass a new measure to extend Duterte\u2019s special powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt amounts to a new law\u00a0kasi wala naman pong<\/em>\u00a0extension\u00a0kung napaso na \u2018yung batas<\/em>\u00a0(because there will be no extension when the law lapses). So\u00a0siguro po<\/em>,\u00a0kahit anong<\/em>\u00a0title\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0bill\u00a0na iyan<\/em>\u00a0(So perhaps, whatever the title of the bill is), it will amount to a new law authorizing the exercise of the emergency power,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Malaca\u00f1ang earlier stressed the need to extend Duterte\u2019s emergency powers to allow his administration to address the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak.<\/p>\n

As of June 1, the Philippines has reported 18,638 Covid-19 cases.<\/p>\n

Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez has filed House Bill 6811, which seeks to extend Duterte\u2019s special powers until September this year as it is \u201cclear that the pandemic will not be over by June 24, 2020.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto and Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri have also filed Senate Bills 1561 and 1546, respectively, extending the validity of RA 11469 until September 30 thus allowing Duterte to have additional 90 days to use his emergency powers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Congress may hold a special session during recess to extend the emergency powers granted to President Rodrigo Duterte amid …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":254547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":256828,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256826\/revisions\/256828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}