Thus, the goal of the Upper House is to extend the presidential amnesty grant to the rightist rebels so that they could have a truly Merry Christmas this coming Yuletide season, Sen. Teofisto L. Guingona III, chairman of the Senate peace, unification and reconciliation committee, said on Friday.

Guingona and Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, chairman of the Senate rules committee, agreed to the short-cut mode after Malacañang, through Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr., submitted to the Upper House the other day the re-worded presidential Proclamation No. 75.

He had proposed that Senate would hold a caucus and agree that they should no longer hold committee hearings.

This means that the Senate allows the Guingona and Sotto committees to submit their original committee reports and allow questions to be asked during the plenary session, Guingona said.

But Sotto still has to refile his Senate concurrent resolution asking the Senate to give its concurrence to the amnesty proclamation to send the legislative process in motion.

As a result, Senate floor debate on the amnesty grant was expected to start immediately after the Upper House has approved its version of the proposed 2011 P1.6-trillion national budget (General Appropriations Act or GAA) on or before Dec. 1, Guingona said.

The long legislative process is for the Senate to conduct hearings after a resolution or bill has been filed and referred to a specific committee or committees. The committee report is later submitted to the Senate leadership to be calendared for plenary debate.

The two committees of Guingona and Sotto were prepared to submit last Monday their report seeking the Senate concurrence on Proclamation No. 50 which stated that the amnesty grant that it takes effect “immediately.’’

Mario Casayuran, Manila Bulletin