THE Senate will stop holding hybrid plenary sessions and committee hearings and meetings beginning next week, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri announced yesterday days after President Marcos lifted the State of Nationwide Public Emergency due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Zubiri said all Senate committees are now required to conduct their hearings and meetings face to face.
“…And considering that all activities have returned to pre-pandemic levels, the Senate will no longer conduct hybrid hearings and meetings beginning Monday, August 7, 2023, and shall revert back to our practice of conducting hearings and meetings physically,” Zubiri said before adjourning Wednesday’s session.
He said the House of Representatives has also already disallowed hybrid hearings and sessions.
Zubiri said hybrid hearings and meetings will only be allowed during “force majeure” or in the event of emergencies upon the discretion of the committee chairman and its members.
President Marcos lifted the state of public health emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic on July 21.
The state of public health emergency was declared by then President Duterte on March 2020 after the first COVID-19 transmission in the country was reported by the Department of Health.
On May this year, the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee of the World Health Organization noted the decreasing number of deaths related to COVID-19.
