{"id":261071,"date":"2020-07-09T07:26:03","date_gmt":"2020-07-09T11:26:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=261071"},"modified":"2020-07-09T07:26:03","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T11:26:03","slug":"congress-has-not-been-idle-amid-pandemic-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/09\/congress-has-not-been-idle-amid-pandemic-speaker\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress has not been idle amid pandemic: Speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: Alan Peter Cayetano in Malaca\u00f1an on Oct. 28, 2016 KING RODRIGUEZ\/Presidential Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Thursday said the House of Representatives has been working on several measures to boost the government\u2019s fight against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic while also tackling the pending franchise of media giant ABS-CBN.<\/p>\n

During a House hearing on the summation of discussions on ABS-CBN\u2019s franchise, Cayetano said it is \u201cunproductive\u201d and \u201cirresponsibly detrimental\u201d to the country\u2019s Covid-19 efforts when critics give the public a \u201cfalse impression\u201d that Congress has not been focused during the crisis or not in touch with what is happening on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring these past months, as the whole world struggled to cope with the effects of the virus, and the entire nation convulsed with the disruption in our lives brought about by the quarantines, Congress has not been idle,\u201d Cayetano said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, as was required of us and despite valid reservations, we have tackled the contentious matter of the franchise application of ABSCBN. But away from the public limelight and media scrutiny, we have also prioritized the needs of our citizens in response to the current crisis,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He noted that Congress has passed into law Republic Act No. 11469, or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, that provided PHP200 billion for the government\u2019s social amelioration program.<\/p>\n

He further highlighted that the House of Representatives approved several Covid-19 related measures before its sine die adjournment in June, including House Bill 6815 or the PHP1.3-trillion Accelerated Recovery and Investments Stimulus for the Economy (ARISE) bill; House Bill 6817, or the Anti-Covid-19 Discrimination bill; House Bill 6864, or the Better Normal for the Workplace, Communities, and Public Spaces bill; and House Bill 6920, or the PHP1.5-trillion Covid-19 Unemployment Reduction Economic Stimulus (CURES) bill.<\/p>\n

He said there are 10 other pending House bills and resolutions specifically for the purpose of helping front-liners.<\/p>\n

Cayetano particularly referred to Vice President Leni Robredo\u2019s criticism that the lawmakers are prioritizing other matters instead of focusing on the current public health emergency.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi natutulog sa pansitan ang Kongreso<\/em>\u00a0(Congress is not sleeping on the job).<\/em>\u00a0I say this for the benefit of the vice president, who despite appearing to be clueless as to the real work of this Congress, has nonetheless felt it\u2019s her duty to instruct this House on how it should conduct its business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have directed our Press and Public Affairs Bureau to provide the Office of the Vice President with the pertinent bills for her future press statements,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Thursday said the House of Representatives has been working on several measures to boost …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":238694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261071"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261073,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261071\/revisions\/261073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}