ADMINISTRATION lawmakers yesterday continued to express support for the leadership of Speaker Martin Romualdez, saying the House will follow his lead and tune out from all the political noise caused by his rift with Vice President Sara Duterte, so they could focus on legislation.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers said Romualdez has set the tone for the House to be “prolific” during the First Regular Session of the 19th Congress, with its high output of processed and approved measures.
“The House will continue to perform at this pace for the rest of the 19th Congress. Speaker Romualdez knows that time is of the essence, that’s why he can easily tune out from all the political noise. We will follow his lead,” he said.
Barbers, a stalwart of the Nacionalista Party, said the measures the House approved during the First Regular Session “have both quality and quantity – quality, because the chamber passed 33 out of the 42 priority bills of President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. as listed by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), and quantity because the chamber was able to process 30 measures per session day, and this was 10 percent more than what the previous Congress did.”
A total of 577 bills were passed on third and final during the past 10 months which constituted the First Regular Session.
Last week, Romualdez allies asked Duterte to end the rift with the Speaker, which began apparently with her “tambaloslos” post on social media, which was seen. She later said it was Sen. Imee Marcos, the President’s sister, who convinced her to run for vice president, and not Romualdez as claimed by Rep. Cavite Elpidio Barzaga.
Barbers said Romualdez has obviously been President Marcos’ most trusted ally in the legislature, which makes it all the more important for the House to help deliver on the administration’s “Agenda for Prosperity.”
Romualdez and Marcos are cousins.
“A lot is riding on the work of government. In fact there are over 31 million who bought into the President’s notion of a better and more comfortable life. This promise will come to fruition if the legislature and executive continues to tread a united path,” he said.
President Marcos Jr. ran on a platform of unity with Duterte, who recently resigned from the ruling Lakas-CMD, of which Romualdez is president and deputy speaker Gloria Arroyo is chairman emeritus.
Arroyo was recently stripped by the House leadership of her title, senior deputy speaker, for allegedly attempting to oust Romualdez. Arroyo, a known ally of Vice President Sara Duterte, managed to pull off a coup in the 18th Congress against then-Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, with the help of Duterte, who was then Davao City mayor and presidential daughter.
The Speaker, who was one of Sara Duterte’s campaign managers in the 2022 national elections, earlier said his leadership “will not allow any distraction to derail our efforts at finding appropriate and timely solutions to the problems affecting the lives of our people.”
STRONG SYNERGY
Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga, a member of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), said the “strong synergy” between the House under Romualdez and the Executive is the key to the chamber’s record number of bills and resolutions passed during the First Regular Session.
“Speaker Romualdez is taking the high road. He is even urging us to be more productive as the Second Regular Session of Congress draws near. And I fully agree: we have to focus our eyes on the prize, which is working for the welfare of our constituents, the Filipino people,” said Enverga, chair of the House committee on agriculture and food.
“And the House, under the guidance of Speaker Romualdez, has a strong synergy with President Marcos and his administration. I hope we could maintain that and continue to be effective in our objectives, such as passing priority legislation of the President,” added Enverga, who spearheaded the probe on the onion issue that uncovered the cartel responsible for manipulating the supply and price of onion in the country.
The administration lawmaker pointed out that it was the Speaker who called for a congressional probe in December last year when prices of onion surged to over P700 a kilo to address the issue and protect the consumers.
He said this outstanding performance by the larger chamber has been recognized by the Filipino people when the House or Speaker Romualdez scored very high trust, performance or satisfaction ratings in the surveys of large polling firms like Social Weather Stations, Pulse Asia and OCTA Research.
“We could not have done this without the synergy we have with Malacañang. The teamwork made all of these possible. This is why we have to further strengthen this harmonious relations with the administration of President Marcos,” Enverga said.
