THE House of Representatives has entered into a research agreement with the Ateneo de Manila University to ensure the passage of more “evidence-based” legislation.
The memorandum of agreement, “HRep-Ateneo de Manila Research Project,” was signed by secretary general Reginald Velasco for the House of Representatives and Fr. Roberto C. Yap, president of ADMU and on behalf of the university’s Department of Economics and the Ateneo Center for Economic Research and Development (ACERD).
The signing ceremony was held at the Romualdez Hall of the House of Representatives complex.
The research partnership will focus on organizing 11 research teams that will conduct studies on sectors identified in the eight-point agenda of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
These are in the areas of agriculture and food security; infrastructure, transportation and energy security; health, education and social protection; employment; fiscal management; competition and entrepreneurship; research, development and the digital economy; environment, green and blue economy, and sustainable communities, and; peace, security, and public order and safety.
The research teams will be headed by experts in the field and will be called congressional research fellows (CRFs).”
“The CRFs shall come from ADMU, and other universities or research institutions,” the MOA said.
The research teams will include representatives from the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD), an office mandated to conduct policy and budget research to serve as informational foundation to legislation and oversight.
The ACERD is dedicated to producing research that can serve as input to policy-making, and coordinates with other institutions to promote exchange of knowledge and skills.
Speaker Martin Romualdez expressed optimism the chamber can expect to work on “evidence-based” and people-oriented” legislation very soon.
“Today is indeed an auspicious day at the House of Representatives. It has been our dream to bring about a smarter House of Representatives, one that is equipped with the means by which we can effectively pursue evidence-based and people-oriented legislation in a timely manner,” Romualdez said during the signing ceremony.
Romualdez said the partnership could not have come “at a more opportune time.”
“We are at a critical juncture in our life as a nation. While the state of national health emergency has passed, many of our people are still feeling the effects of the pandemic and its byproducts on the economy,” he said.
Romualdez said the global economic prospects in the coming years are not good and “these conditions make it imperative that the decisions we make in the here and now actually result in changes that lead to the intended improvement in the lives of many, if not all our people,.”
