Speaker Martin G. Romualdez on Monday assured President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that the House of Representatives would quickly pass 30 vital measures for job creation, health, and economic recovery to protect the country’s most vulnerable people.
Romualdez was referring to 30 out of the 32 bills approved or listed during Monday’s meeting of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) as its common legislative agenda (CLA).
It was the first time Mr. Marcos convened the LEDAC.
“The House and the Senate will give these measures utmost priority. President Marcos clearly spelled out a roadmap of governance in the next six years for economic recovery, with agriculture as the major engine for growth and employment,” Romualdez, who attended the LEDAC meeting in Malacañang, said.
Also adopted as the 31st and 32nd measures during LEDAC were The SIM Registration Act which was signed into law by President Marcos after Monday’s LEDAC meeting and The Postponement of Barangay & SK Elections, which was awaiting the Chief Executive’s signature as of press time Monday.
He said that more bills might be added to the list.
Also in attendance during the LEDAC meeting were House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, Reps. Stella Quimbo, House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, Senators Loren Legarda and Juan Edgardo Angara, and Cabinet secretaries.
Romualdez said the House also invoked and will continue to use Rule 10, Section 48 of its rules of procedure, which authorizes the committees to dispose of priority measures already filed and approved on the third reading in the immediately preceding Congress.
“The House is in full support of the President’s entire legislative agenda, including the key priority measures for legislation he has asked Congress to consider. We will act on these with dispatch,” Romualdez said.
“With the guidance and support of President Marcos Jr. and the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, these priority measures will become laws, which the Filipino people can benefit from,” Romualdez said, adding that the 20 measures enumerated by the President in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) were included in the 30 priority bills.
“I am proud to say that the members of both houses of Congress have already filed bills on the 20 priority measures identified by President Marcos,” Romualdez said.
The 20 priority measures enumerated by President Marcos in his SONA that were part of the total 32 CLA bills were the Valuation Reform Bill, Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA), E-Governance Act, E-Government Act, Internet Transaction Act, Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE) bill; Medical Reserve Corps bill, National Disease Prevention Management Authority bill, Virology Institute of the Philippines bill, Unified System of Separation, Retirement and Pension bill, Department of Water Resources bill, National Land Use Act, Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and National Service Training Program, Budget Modernization bill, National Government Rightsizing Program; National Defense Act, Enactment of an Enabling Law for the Natural Gas Industry, Amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, Amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law, and the Condonation of Unpaid Amortization and Interests of Loans of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries.
In addition to the 20 priority measures identified by President Marcos, Romualdez said the Senate and the House of Representatives have identified an additional 12 priority bills, including the newly signed SIM Registration Act and the postponement of the barangay and SK elections as part of LEDAC’s CLA.
Romualdez said 10 out of the 12 additional measures are as follows: The Establishment of Regional Specialty Hospitals, the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers, Establishing the Negros Island Region,
The New Philippine Passport Act, Waste-to-Energy Bill, The Apprenticeship Act, Providing Free Legal Assistance for Military and Uniformed Personnel, The Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers, The Creation of the Leyte Ecological Industrial Zone, and The Creation of the Eastern Visayas Development Authority.
Zubiri called the LEDAC a success in enabling the legislative and executive departments to synchronize their priority measures.
“It’s very timely that we had our first LEDAC right before the budget season,” he said.
“That is going to be taking up most of our time in the plenary once we resume the session, and we needed this LEDAC to identify the bills we must make room for alongside the budget,” he said. “This LEDAC was a success in that regard,” he said.
The Senate leader said they had a productive meeting where they reaffirmed their commitment to a common legislative agenda.
“We have pledged passage of bills which will accelerate our pandemic recovery, insulate our hardworking families from the inflationary fallout from global disruptions, and anchor our regions and sectors on stronger fundamentals to build resiliency and secure our future.”