THE Senate is likely to pass the reproductive health (RH) and the freedom of information (FOI) bills before Congress takes a month-long break next week if the House will act on the two measures in plenary.

This came as the senators agreed to extend its session until December 20 to ensure the passage of the two measures on third and final reading. Lawmakers usually hold sessions only from Monday to Wednesday.

Sen. Ralph Recto and Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto 3rd are the only ones left to present their proposed individual amendments to the RH bill. The Senate will vote on the measure on second reading on Monday after Sotto is finished with his amendments.

Since the RH bill is not certified as urgent by President Benigno Aquino 3rd, it can be approved on third and final reading only on December 20, or three days after the voting on second reading.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jose “Jinggoy” Ejercito Estrada stressed, however, that the December 20 session would push through only if the House will also act on the measure.

“If the House does not act on the measure, I think there is no point for us to have a session on Thursday;” Estrada said.

Catholic bishops and anti-RH bill trooped to the House on Wednesday to convince lawmakers to junk the measure. They have urged the Catholic faithful to vote against those who will support it.

In a press conference, Minority Leader Danilo Suarez said that the bishops and their followers only make up the “swing votes.”

He said that Catholics only make up 7 percent to 8 percent of a district’s electorate and these numbers mean that they are only useful in close races.

He said that runaway winners would not care less if the Church supported them or not.

Unlike the RH bill, there is no similar time pressure at the Senate for the FOI bill since the chamber already passed it on second reading on Tuesday. It is expected to be approved on third and final reading next week.

Authors of the measure in the House, on the other hand, are concerned about the tightness of the calendar. The FOI bill has already been passed by the House committee on mass media, but it still has to be calendared for plenary deliberations.

Representatives Teddy Baguilat of Ifugao province, Sherwin Tugna of Citizens Battle Against Corruption party-list and Juan Edgardo Angara of Aurora province said that the House should speed up its deliberations on the FOI bill considering that it took almost two years before the measure secured House committee approval.

“It is a travesty that it took us more two years just to get the FOI out of the Committee. We should now fast track deliberations,” Baguilat said in a text message.

He described the measure as “the mother of transparency bills” because it empowers people to be agents of governance thru access to information.

Tugna, also a House assistant majority leader, is confident that there is still time to pass the FOI measure, if not before Congress adjourns for the Christmas break, then before the 15th Congress adjourns sine die on the second week of June 2013.