President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Tuesday that the government has reprioritized bills aimed at generating livelihoods, protecting the environment, and strengthening security.
“We’ve enacted 14 of 57 priority bills and are reprioritizing measures to boost livelihood, protect the environment, and strengthen security,” Marcos said. “With seven more bills slated for passage in June, we’re advancing towards a stronger Bagong Pilipinas.”
Malacañang said Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri committed to the passage of all the legislative measures being pushed by the administration by June this year.
“Good news — many of the requests of our President have been approved in the LEDAC (Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council). Both Houses of Congress have approved them and are now in the final stages. It’s just a matter of the President’s signature, or they are in the bicameral conference committee meetings, which means they will soon become law,” Zubiri said.
Zubiri said they have committed to the President that all 23 measures will be completed by June before the Senate takes a break sine die.
“That’s our commitment to the President together with the House of Representatives. But we’re on track to pass all of these by June,” he added.
Zubiri said 15 of the measures are set to be finalized before the Senate adjournment, with the remaining eight expected to be approved by June.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez affirmed that all the priority measures outlined by the LEDAC have been successfully addressed and forwarded to the Senate.
“And the reason why we went ahead is because we need to finish our work in the House first before we bring it up to the Senate. That’s why we always focus on our LEDAC priority measures so that the deliberations in the Senate won’t be delayed, so we always, not to rush, but we really put in overtime in the House,” Romualdez said.
During the 6th LEDAC Technical Working Group Meeting on 16 January 2024, 21 bills were identified as priority measures for passage by June this year, but these were eventually narrowed down to 15, considering the limited remaining session days.
The LEDAC, however, moved to add five more priority measures in support of social and economic initiatives to be passed by June. These include the Open Access in Digital Transmission Act, the Enterprise-based Education Program (Apprenticeship Act), CREATE More, An Act Creating the Department of Water Management, and Amendments to the Universal Health Care Act.
The 15 priority measures for passage by the end of June are the Amendments to Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act/Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, Self-Reliant Defense Posture Act, Philippine Maritime Zones Act, Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act, Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System and the Negros Island Region Act.
Also on the list are the Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act, the Value-Added Tax on Digital Services, Amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act, Blue Economy Act, Waste-to-Energy Bill, Mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps and National Service Training Program, Unified System of Separation, Retirement, and Pension of Military and Uniformed Personnel, E-Government Act/E-Governance Act, and Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning Program Act.
Of the 57 Common Legislative Agenda bills for the 19th Congress, 14 have been signed into law, while 43 remain.
Signed into law were the SIM Card Registration Act, Postponement of Barangay/SK elections, Strengthening Professionalism in the AFP, New Agrarian Emancipation Act, Maharlika Investment Fund, Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act, Public-Private Partnership Code of the Philippines, Regional Specialty Centers, Automatic Income Classification of LGUs, Internet Transactions Act, Ease of Paying Taxes Act, Tatak Pinoy (Proudly Filipino) Act, Philippine Salt Industry Development Act, and New Philippine Passport Act.
