THE House’s 13-panel Legislative Energy Action and Development (LEAD) committee hearings are now entering their next and more consequential phase, with lawmakers moving to turn testimony, sectoral complaints and agency recommendations into what Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo described as a consolidated Kalinga bill.
Quimbo, overall chair of the LEAD hearings and chair of the House Committee on Ways and Means, said the next step is for the 13 committees to break up according to their own areas of competence and begin gathering the recommendations needed to shape the final measure.
“Ang next task na po is magbe-break up ang 13 committees para gawin nila ang kanya-kanyang subject matter expertise para kunin at i-collate ang lahat ng mga recommendations ng departments,” Quimbo said in a press conference.
The 13-panel LEAD structure was assembled by the House under Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III and House Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos to give the chamber a wider, whole-of-House response to the oil shock, drawing in committees handling transport, labor, energy, social services, overseas workers, information and communications technology and other sectors touched by the crisis.
As rising tensions in the Middle East continue to push global oil prices upward, Dy and Marcos have moved to institutionalize a national protection system that ensures Filipinos are not left to bear the full burden of another fuel-driven crisis.
Dy and Marcos have filed House Bill (HB) No. 8834, or the KALINGA Act, a measure designed to guarantee fast, targeted, and automatic government response when fuel price shocks begin driving up the cost of living.
More than an emergency assistance measure, the KALINGA Act establishes a national protection framework that allows government to act early, decisively, and in a coordinated manner—before rising fuel costs spiral into widespread increases in fares, food prices, electricity, and other daily expenses.
“Isang galaw lang sa presyo ng langis, lahat tumataas—pamasahe, pagkain, kuryente. Hahanapan ng Kongreso at pamahalaan ng solusyon ang sitwasyon,” Marcos said in an earlier statement. “Sa KALINGA Act, may malinaw na sistema—may trigger, may aksyon, may tulong.”
At the core of the proposal is the KALINGA Program, a whole-of-government response system that is automatically activated once critical warning signs appear, such as sharp increases in fuel prices, extraordinary inflation, low fuel supply levels, or the declaration of a national energy emergency.
“Hindi ito ayuda lang. Ito ay proteksyon,” Marcos stressed. “Kapag tumaas ang presyo, automatic ang tulong.”
Quimbo added that the process will not stop at sector-by-sector collection, because the entire point now is to bring the scattered pieces together into a single legislative framework.
“And then we will consolidate all of these things,” Quimbo noted.
For the House, that means the LEAD hearings are no longer simply a venue for airing grievances over oil prices, transport distress and relief bottlenecks, but are now being used as the drafting ground for a bill that is meant to become the chamber’s main legislative answer to the crisis.
“And then we will consolidate so we can firm up and submit to the Joint Committee on the first week of May, yung consolidated Kalinga Bill filed by Speaker Bojie Dy, a week and a half,” Quimbo explained.
“And then we will start consolidating by the last few days of April and then present it to the Joint Committee formally,” he added.
Quimbo clarified, however, that the formal presentation still depends on plenary action constituting the committee in the proper legislative sense.
“I say formally kasi right now the committee has not been formed by plenary action. So as soon as that is done, the consolidated bill will now be presented formally to the Joint Committee,” Quimbo pointed out.
He said the hearings were never meant to function as an exercise in criticism for its own sake, but as an attempt to improve the government’s response while there is still time to shape the outcome.
“We all mean well here. I think what’s important is, like I always say, I hope the Executive understands that we are not here to criticize. We are here to make the necessary suggestions so that the executive and the President can make accurate and correct decisions, best decisions for our people,” Quimbo stressed.
He also clarified the legislative identity of what is now being assembled, saying that while the framework may once have resembled the idea of a Bayanihan 3, the House has now settled on a broader and more defined Kalinga bill.
“So sinabi ko this is almost going to be like Bayanihan 3. We’re not just going to touch upon ayuda, we’re going to touch upon health, we’re going to touch upon the banking sector, the transportation sector. But that’s not Bayanihan 3 anymore, it’s now the Kalinga Bill,” Quimbo said.
Quimbo also signaled that the House intends to use the Kalinga bill to address complaints that the middle class has been squeezed by the oil shock but too often left outside the first layer of government help.
“Of course we’ll push for all these tax reforms where we feel like the middle class has been left out,” Quimbo said.
“And they also deserve some help. So one of that is to realign, reprogram and amend funds, enter supply agreements or emergency supply agreements, and suspend or reduce fuel taxes,” Quimbo pointed out.
For Quimbo, that also means the House cannot pretend that a crisis of this scale can be managed with ordinary tools alone, especially when agencies need room to move faster than they would in normal times.
“We need emergency powers to be able to address urgent needs,” Quimbo said.
He said the House also wants closer coordination with the Executive branch, particularly the Department of Finance, because the final quality of the Kalinga bill will depend not just on intention but on whether the government is working off the fullest and most accurate data available.
“We want the Executive, we want to help the President find the best solution. And you can only find the best solution if you have the best data,” Quimbo added.
