Transcript of Senator Pia S. Cayetano's Opening Statement
On the CREATE Bill's Period of Interpellations (Day 6)

Mr. President, my team and I are here today because we were able to present to the Senate medical team our PCR test that says we are negative. So, based on our Senate regulations, we are allowed to come in. Again, I'd like to thank the Senate President, the Secretariat, and the medical team for their strict protocols that basically have allowed us to do our work and proceed with these precautions.

On that note, just to share with our colleagues, what we decided to do is to put an acrylic barrier between my staff and the resource persons who are on the other side. I am sharing this with all of you, because as Sen. Grace mentioned earlier, we have to start planning how we will be doing our budget. And I also will be handling a number of budgets. And as you all know, it's human nature, when you are asked a question, you want to find the answer. You will look at the document the secretary is holding, at the document that someone else is holding. So we really have to rethink how we are going to do this.

And for that same reason, I ask for the compassion of our colleagues in understanding what we have to go through to defend this bill. Thank you for your consideration.

I am ready to accept interpellation from the gentleman from Zambales [Sen. Richard Gordon]. He is very knowledgeable and I hope to learn a number of things from him and I thank him in advance for his support because when I attended his committee hearing on RICH, he expressed support and asked the DOF to assist in also amending RICH so that it can be aligned with the CREATE Bill.