The House Committee on Science and Technology has approved the consolidation of four bills aimed at strengthening the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP) to better promote scientific research.

Committee chairman Julio Ledesma IV, a representative from Negros Occidental, pushed for the measures, noting that the council’s current charter is nearly a century old. Republic Act 4120, which created the council, was passed in December 1933 during the Commonwealth era.

“If you read the enabling law, it is no longer applicable; it is obsolete,” Ledesma said, noting that seven of the law’s original nine operative provisions are no longer functional.

The consolidated measures include House Bills 3539, 7724, 7802, and 4689. They were authored by Speaker Faustino Dy III, Aklan Representative Jesus Marquez, Zamboanga del Sur Representative Joseph Kim Yu and Leyte Representative Martin Romualdez.

In his explanatory note, Dy highlighted the NRCP’s role as a collegial body of scientists responsible for supporting fundamental research and providing advice on issues of national interest.

He credited the council with helping create the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology and the predecessor of the Department of Science and Technology.

Dy stressed that the proposed changes are necessary to keep pace with global digitalization and to transform the NRCP into a world-class institution.

“After more than eight decades, its charter must be revisited and the necessary innovations be introduced,” Dy said.

The approved bills will now move to the next stage of the legislative process to modernize the agency’s funding, structure, and cooperative links with international scientific organizations.