DEPUTY Majority Leader and Tingog Partylist Rep. Jude A. Acidre on Thursday urged the Senate to meet the suggested time frame for the passage of the Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) 6 and 7, which seeks to allow more foreign direct investments in the country to boost the economy.
“We have fulfilled our mandate and passed the resolution. We have forwarded it to the Senate, so we’re looking at our friends there and what they will do,” he said during a press conference.
The Senate insists on the bicameral nature of the legislative branch of the Philippine Government, which emphasizes the reciprocity of both chambers, Rep. Acidre added.
“We have full trust, considering that RBH 6 is authored by the Senate President, by the Senate President pro tempore, by the Majority Leader, and the Chairman of the Sub-Committee,” Rep. Acidre remarked.
“I have full trust in their capacity to convince their peers in the upper house knowing that as Resolution No. 7 states this is something that will be good for the country kasi ito ang sinulat nila sa counterpart resolution nila,” he added.
RBH 7 was approved on final reading by the members of the House on March 20, 2024.
House Speaker Martin G. Romualdez instructed the Members of the House to give the upper chamber enough time to deliberate RBH 6, Rep. Acidre shared.
“I hope with this, the instruction of the speaker is to give as much time as the Senate requires in support of the President. However, we have to understand that there is a limited time frame to do this,” he added.
The House cited that the most favorable time to pass the economic constitutional amendment is before the sine die, as that is the logical and feasible deadline for the plebiscite before the 2025 elections, Rep. Acidre said.
The House had approved all 19 Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) bills before the initial target date of June, Speaker Romualdez said on March 19.
Approved priority bills include developing the country’s natural gas industry, imposing a value-added tax on digital services, providing open access to data transmission, reforming the pension system for military and uniformed personnel (MUP), pushing for a sustainable blue economy, amending the Government Procurement Reform Act, creating the Department of Water Resources and Services, establishing the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program, and enhancing country’s tax incentives through the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy Act (CREATE MORE) bill.
Additionally, the Housed approved the Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System; creating the Negros Island Region; Philippine Maritime Zones bill; proposed amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act; bill on self-reliant defense posture program; Valuation Reform Bill; Waste-to-Energy Bill; Instituting a National Citizens Service Training (NCST) Program; E-Governance bill; and Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming bill.
