Romualdez assures swift passage of 30 LEDAC-endorsed bills

Romualdez said the House of Representatives will continue to invoke Rule 10, Section 48 of the House of Representatives for the swift approval of some of the 30 CLA measures. (File Photo: Martin Romualdez/Facebook)

MANILA – Speaker Martin Romualdez on Monday assured President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. of the House of Representatives’ commitment to pass with dispatch the 30 vital measures approved during the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting as its Common Legislative Agenda (CLA).

“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,” he said. “With the guidance and support of President Marcos Jr. and the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO), these priority measures will become Laws, which the Filipino people can benefit from.”

Marcos convened the LEDAC for the first time under his administration Monday to discuss his legislative agenda.

During his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July, Marcos urged Congress to pass his 20 priority measures that include the Valuation Reform Bill, Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA); E-Governance 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; and Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC).

Also included in the legislative agenda are the 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.

“President Marcos called for the enactment of 20 priority measures and both Houses of Congress heeded the call. I am proud to say that the members of both Houses of Congress have already filed bills on the20 priority measures identified by President Marcos,” Romualdez said.

In addition to the 20 priority measures, 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 Barangay & SK Elections which is now awaiting the Chief Executive’s signature.

The 10 additional measures include: 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.

“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 said.

Romualdez said the House of Representatives will continue to invoke Rule 10, Section 48 of the House of Representatives for the swift approval of some of the 30 CLA measures.

“We have the internal mechanism for an expeditious approval process that is enshrined in the House rules of procedure,” Romualdez said.

Rule 10, Section 48 authorizes the committees to dispose of priority measures already filed and approved on third reading in the immediately preceding Congress.

He said the use of this particular rule would greatly hasten consideration and endorsement by any committee of any covered bill, and its eventual plenary approval.

“As Speaker of the House, I am inviting stakeholders from the Executive and Judicial Branch as well as all private sector stakeholders to join our legislators in deliberating and scrutinizing these measures to ensure that only the best possible version of the bills is reported out by the House of Representatives,” he said.

“I am looking forward to working with the Senate, the Judiciary, and the Executive Branch, under the leadership of President Marcos Jr., in putting plan into action, and implementing our unified goal for a better Philippines and its people,” he added.