THE House of Representatives will resume sessions today, left with only four priority bills of the Marcos administration to approve.
Speaker Martin Romualdez said the House is almost done with the approval of all 57 priority bills picked by the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).
“We are almost done with the priority bills agreed upon by Congress and the executive branch. We have approved on final reading all but four of the 57 measures in the LEDAC list,” he said.
“We have accomplished our mission as lawmakers by acting promptly on the legislative agenda of President Marcos, which is focused on sustaining economic growth, helping the poor and vulnerable sectors, creating jobs and income opportunities, and in general, making life better for every Filipino,” he also said.
The Speaker said another bill in the list, House Bill (HB) No. 9713 or the proposed “Act institutionalizing a Philippine self-reliant defense posture program and promoting the development of a national defense industry pursuant thereto,” is already set to be passed on third and final reading, leaving only three measures in the list for final approval.
Romualdez said the country should have a credible defense program and industry “so it would not be totally dependent on foreign allies and suppliers for its defense requirements.”
The three LEDAC measures awaiting final approval are: amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), which is under technical working group finalization; and the Budget Modernization bill and National Defense Act, which are still under committee consideration.
Another proposed law, which is a House priority, is also scheduled for final approval: HB No. 9571, or the proposed “Act prohibiting the development, production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons, providing for their destruction, and imposing penalties for violations thereof.”
Eleven other bills, which the House considers as among its priorities, are in various stages of plenary and committee deliberation.
“We will await Senate action on proposed laws that we have approved on third and final reading, and we will be ready to sit with senators in bicameral conferences to come up with the final versions,” Romualdez said.
The House leader cited the P5.768 trillion 2024 national budget as the most important piece of legislation that Congress passed and which the President has already signed into law.
The 11 LEDAC bills the President has signed into law are the following: SIM Registration Act, postponement of barangay/Sangguniang Kabataan elections, strengthening professionalism in the AFP, New Agrarian Reform Emancipation Act, Maharlika Investment Fund Act, regional specialty hospitals, national employment recovery strategy/Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act, LGU Income Classification Act, Internet Transaction Act/E-Commerce Law, amendments to the BOT Law/PPP Bill, and Ease of Paying Taxes Act.
Conference committee reports on four other LEDAC bills have been ratified by the House and the Senate.
These are the New Passport Act, revitalizing the salt industry bill, Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers, and Tatak Pinoy (Proudly Filipino) Act.
Two more measures will undergo the bicameral conference process: proposed amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act and Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System Act.
The House has already approved on third and final reading some 36 LEDAC bills, including the Virology Institute of the Philippines, Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act, National Disease Prevention Management Authority, Health Emergency Auxiliary Reinforcement Team Act, Waste-to-Energy Bill, Free Legal Assistance for Police and Soldiers, Apprenticeship Law, Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers, Valuation Reform Bill, Eastern Visayas Development Authority, Leyte Ecological Industrial Zone, Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery, Instituting a National Citizens Service Training (NCST) Program, Negros Island Region, National Government Rightsizing Program, and amendments to the Universal Health Care Act
The lower chamber has also approved the Comprehensive Infrastructure Development Master Plan, National Land Use Act, Philippine Immigration Act, Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act, amendments to the Bank Deposits Secrecy Law, enabling Law for the Natural Gas Industry, Excise Tax on Single-Use Plastics, amendments to the Fisheries Code, VAT on Digital Services, Philippine Maritime Zones Act, Open Access in Data Transmission Act, amendments to the Right-of-Way Act, Military and Uniformed Personnel Pension Reform bill, rationalization of the Mining Fiscal Regime, Blue Economy Act, amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act, New Government Auditing Code, Department of Water Resources and Services, and amendments to the Cooperative Code.
SENATE ACTION
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte urged the Senate to consider the immediate approval of measures that were already approved last year by the House, among them the bill seeking to extend assistance to various sectoral groups, including barangay health workers (BHWs), overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), teachers, the military and other uniformed personnel (MUP).
Villafuerte said other House-approved measures pending Senate approval are House Bill No. 6557, providing job security to BHWs; HB 8325, providing local and foreign specialist doctors to migrant workers and their families at the OFW Hospital; and HB 9347, furnishing out-of-school youths (OSYs) with training and other social protection programs.
He also urged the Senate to approve House-approved bills seeking to further professionalize and increase the pay of Bureau of Immigration (BI) workers (HB 8203), and exempt teachers, soldiers, and other uniformed personnel from the government rightsizing plan (HB 7240).
HB 6557 is proposing a broad set of economic incentives and benefits, ranging from a P3,000 monthly allowance and hazard pay to insurance coverage and free medical plus legal services, for all BHWs in the country.
The bill also eyes job security for BHWs “so they will no longer be at the mercy of local chief executives who, at present, can fire them capriciously over, among others, their perceived adverse political leanings,” Villafuerte said.
He said HB 6557 wants to ensure security of tenure by conferring a first-grade Civil Service Eligibility to every accredited BHW who has rendered at least five years of continuous service as a community health worker.
Under HB 8325, the House wants both local and foreign cardiologists, pulmonologists, nephrologists, and other medical specialists to hold clinics and treat migrant Filipinos and their families at the proposed OFWH in Pampanga.
The bill tasks the Department of Health (DOH) to sign up medical specialists to treat OFWs and their families at the OFWH, which is a Level III hospital that lawmakers have proposed to be established in San Fernando, Pampanga, said Villafuerte.
HB 9347 seeks to give LGUs pivotal roles in the nationwide listing of OSYs and mobilization of Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) and Local Youth Development Council (LYDC) panels to provide young Filipinos with the appropriate training and social protection programs to best empower them as partners in nation-building.
The bill tasks LGUs with creating the database of OSYs in their respective cities, municipalities, and barangays to ensure that Filipinos between the ages of 18 and 30 who are neither in school nor gainfully employed would have “ready access to adequate education, health and social services with the end-goal of tapping their full potentials as partners of Government in nation-building.”
Lastly, HB 7420 proposes to exempt teachers, healthcare providers, soldiers, and other uniformed personnel from the House-approved plan to rightsize the bureaucracy and pare unnecessary expenses.
The rightsizing proposal, as presented under HB 7240, shall be carried out over a three-year period, and provides for retirement benefits and separation incentives to would-be affected workers.
“Millions of Filipinos and their families stand to benefit from the legislative approval and enactment into law of these bills that the House, under the leadership of Speaker Martin (Romualdez), had approved on third and final reading since the start of the Second Regular Session of the 19th Congress,” Villafuerte said.
