House approves EE&C bill on 3rd reading, 199-0
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, QUEZON CITY – 3 December 2018. Just three session days after the measure was approved on 2nd reading, the House of Representatives approved on 3rd reading House Bill no. 8629, An Act Institutionalizing an Energy Efficiency and Conservation (EE&C) Program, during a plenary session held earlier today. House Bill no. 8629 was introduced on the floor by Assistant Majority Leader and Vice Chairman of the House Committee on Energy (COE), Rep. Jose Enrique S. Garcia III, during the plenary session on 3 December 2018. After a nominal voting counted 199 affirmative votes, zero negative votes, and zero abstentions, Deputy Speaker and Presiding Officer Raneo E. Abu declared HB 8629, otherwise known as the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Act, approved on 3rd reading by the House of Representatives.
The House, during its plenary session no. 36 of the 3rd Regular Session of the 17th Congress held earlier today, likewise approved a motion of the majority to transmit all House Bills approved on 3rd reading today to the Philippine Senate.
On 29 November 2018, the House Secretariat, under the direction of the Committee on Rules circulated the printed copy of HB 8629 across the Members of the House of Representatives. The circulation was done after the measure was approved on 2nd reading by the House plenary on 27 November 2018.
PE2 expects the EE&C bill to be scheduled for hearing by a Bicameral Conference Committee to reconcile differences between HB 8629 and Senate Bill no. 1531, which was approved on 3rd and final reading in the Philippine Senate on 5 February 2018.
