The Senate was forced to suspend until Monday (November 22, 2021) its budget deliberations as senators and legislative staff must undergo five days of quarantine and get RT-PCR tests after Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who stayed several hours within the session hall on Tuesday, tested positive for Covid-19.
At the same time, Senate President Vicente Sotto III asked the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Department of Health (DOH) to review the quarantine protocols for those coming from other countries and enforce them regardless of the stature of the traveler.
Sotto sounded disappointed because the forced quarantine on all those exposed to Lorenzana during the budget hearings of the Department of National Defense (DND) last Tuesday derailed the already tight timeline of the Senate in processing the 2022 budget bill, which it earlier hoped to pass on second and third reading late next week.
This, so that bicameral conference meetings can be quickly held with the House of Representatives to allow for the 2022 General Appropriations bill to be ratified by both chambers before their Christmas break, and for the President to review and sign it into law before year-end. That way, the country avoids going under a reenacted 2021 budget in January.
Sotto noted that Lorenzana, who came from Poland—a non-green country—should have been in home quarantine. Since he sat for hours on Tuesday with several senators, notably the defense budget sponsor Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Sen. Francis Tolentino, all those in the hall must undergo five days of self-isolation and then tested for Covid-19. This canceled the scheduled budget hearings for Thursday and Friday.