House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy expressed on Friday that members of the House of Representatives remained focused on implementing legal measures that placed the interests and welfare of the public at the forefront of their work.
The sentiment of Dy was said to have been based on the achievement of the House last Wednesday, 20 May, wherein a total of 38 bills were passed during the plenary session.
All proposals were meant for different areas and issues affecting the country, particularly when it comes to emergency response, energy security, public safety, infrastructure, government reforms, and local development initiatives.
Two of the key bills that were passed during the said session was the Anti-Political Dynasty Act and the KALINGA Act which were deemed among the priorities of House leadership amid the recent issues that affected the country in the past months.
“At the resumption of session, we said that the House must continue to act with purpose, discipline, and resolve. Ang mahalaga ngayon ay tuloy-tuloy nating ginagawa ang trabaho at mandato na ipinagkatiwala sa atin ng taumbayan (What’s important is that we continually do our job and mandate that was entrusted to us by the public),” Dy said in a statement.
House Bill 8389 or the Anti-Political Dynasty law was a bill which Dy along with House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos co-authored as a way to resolve the prevalent concentration of power among some areas in the country.
If enacted, the law would effectively prohibit families from holding different public office positions in a particular locality up to the second degree of consanguinity.
The provision would be implemented through the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) by sifting through candidates to ensure that only one candidate from a political family could campaign.
On the other hand, KALINGA was more so catered to addressing the various alarms raised in terms of the country’s preparedness for a crisis uncovered by the recent volatility in the oil price market that came as a result of Middle Eastern conflict.
Through the proposed measure, the President would be granted emergency powers under particular circumstances such as the price of Dubai crude oil reaching $80 per barrel for more than 30 days.
Among the abilities was the capacity to re-allocate funding for different areas affected in the crisis and amend laws such as temporarily suspending Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise tax on petroleum products for a designated period.
Dy said that the passage of these measures reflected the lawmakers focus on proposing laws that had a direct benefit to the day-to-day lives of every Filipino.
“Sa bawat hakbang ng Kamara, ang layunin natin ay tiyaking may konkretong mararamdaman ang ating mga kababayan at mapanatili ang tiwala nila sa mga institusyon ng pamahalaan,” he affirmed.
(In every step of Congress, our goal is to ensure that the public feels concrete change and to maintain their trust in the institutions of government)
Other bills that were passed since the resumption of House sessions in 4 May were the expanded Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the National Land Use Act, and the Philippine Waste to Energy Act.
