THE House of Representatives has already approved on third and final reading 31 out of the 42 priority bills of the Marcos administration.
Speaker Martin Romualdez made the announcement yesterday amid the alleged plot of Deputy Speaker Gloria Arroyo to oust him.
“We are proud of our collective accomplishment — 31 out of 42 and counting. As of today, we have achieved a significant part of our goal in less than a year of session,” Romualdez said.
The priority measures were the ones identified by President Marcos Jr. and the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).
The Speaker, who earlier said the attempt to “destabilize” the House has been “nipped in the bud,” thanked his colleagues “for their hard work, as well as the various political parties in the House which have committed to support the passage of priority measures determined by the President and the LEDAC and the House itself.”
Arroyo, who was demoted last week to the post of regular deputy speaker from senior deputy speaker, has denied plotting a coup against Romualdez, saying that some of her actions “may have been misconstrued, such as my recent trip with a delegation of congressmen to Korea for some official meetings.”
Arroyo and Romualdez later joined each other at the plenary rostrum last Monday night when the former president took her oath as a deputy speaker.
Romualdez even showed his respect to Arroyo by bowing his head and placing it on the former president’s hand, a gesture called “pagmamano” in Filipino.
The Speaker said the latest measures that have been passed were the 30-year National Infrastructure Program Bill and the proposed National Land Use Act.
The Speaker said the measures “aim to support the President’s vision of keeping the economy on the high growth path and generating more jobs and income opportunities for our people.
“The proposed 30-year National Infrastructure Program under House Bill (HB) No. 8078, seeks to institutionalize the administration’s ‘Build Better More’ program to support a strong economy through a resilient and reliable national infrastructure network,” he said.
The proposed National Land Use Act (HB No. 8162) seeks to institute a national land use policy that has been years in the making.
Of the 42 LEDAC bills, three have been signed by the President into law and are now being implemented: SIM (subscriber identify module) Registration Act, the bill postponing the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to October this year and the measure amending the law on the fixed term of the Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff and other high-ranking officers.
Another bill, which seeks to condone unpaid loans obtained by thousands of agrarian reform beneficiaries together with their penalties, has been sent to Malacañang.
Measures that have been approved on third and final reading include the Magna Carta of Seafarers; E-Governance Act / E-Government Act; Negros Island Region; Virology Institute of the Philippines; Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act; National Disease Prevention Management Authority or Center for Disease Control and Prevention;
Medical Reserve Corps; Philippine Passport Act; Internet Transaction Act / E-Commerce Law; Waste-to-Energy Bill; Free Legal Assistance for Police and Soldiers; Apprenticeship Act; Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law; Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers; Valuation Reform; Eastern Visayas Development Authority;
Leyte Ecological Industrial Zone; Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery; National Citizens Service Training Program; and National Government Rightsizing.
Also finally passed and sent to the Senate is the Maharlika Investment or Sovereign Fund bill, authored principally by the Speaker, which the President has certified as urgent.
Two more bills are scheduled for approval on third and final reading: the Bureau of Immigration Modernization and Philippine Salt Industry Act.
Three others are for second reading approval: Natural Gas Industry Enabling Law, National Employment Action Plan, and Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System Bill.
