Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III is upbeat about the prospects of having many bills enacted into law once Congress resumes session on Jan. 18.
While only two bills had been passed before Congress adjourned for the Christmas break, Pimentel noted that senators filed a huge number of bills which are now in various stages.
The first law passed by the 17th Congress was the postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections which was moved from Oct. 31, 2016 to Oct. 21, 2017.
The second was the P 3.35-trillion national budget for 2017 which allocated around P1.4 trillion or 40 percent of the whole budget to social services programs.
“So we have a lot of work to do,” said the Senate leader who is a partymate of President Rodrigo Duterte at PDP-Laban.
Since the start of the 17th Congress last July 25, Pimentel said the senators had filed a total of 1,283 bills and 253 resolutions, which are in different stages of legislation.
It also adopted 33 resolutions, most noteworthy was Senate Resolution No. 33, concurring in the ratification of the Articles of Agreement of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which Pimentel said provided “the government access to more sources of funding so we can usher in a golden age of infrastructure for the Philippines.”
“We opened the First Regular Session of the Senate of the 17th Congress by crafting an 11-point legislative agenda to guide us to Change. And this early, we can see results,” he said.
He said the Senate would continue pursuing priority bills under its 11-point legislative agenda such as the bills on Personal Income Tax Reform, the Amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Act, as well as the bills granting emergency powers to address the traffic crisis, and the end of contractualization, among others.
Pimentel said the Senate would continue its “labor of love for the country,” adding that he would call for a senators’ caucus early next year to properly set the legislative agenda for 2017.
Pimentel earlier extolled that the public, through the Pulse Asia survey, had given the institution its highest approval since these surveys started in 1988.
He noted that the achievements of the Senate were the reason for its high public approval ratings as recorded under the September 2016 Ulat ng Bayan survey of polling firm Pulse Asia.
“In the centennial year of our beloved institution, the public gave us one of the highest net satisfaction ratings recorded since these surveys started in 1988 (at 52 percent as of September 2016),” said Pimentel.
“This is an affirmation that the public trusts us to deliver on the President’s promise of a meaningful change in the lives of our countrymen,” he added.
Responding to critics who taunted that the current leadership had passed only two bills as senators, Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III noted that the 2017 General Appropriations Act (GAA) or the national budget is the single most important piece of legislation every year.
“Everything in the government is in the budget. All laws need it. The government needs it (budget) inorder to move,” stressed Sotto.