SENATE President Juan Miguel Zubiri made a commitment to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Tuesday to pass all the legislative measures being pushed by the administration by June this year.
“Magandang balita, marami dito sa request ng ating Pangulo, sa LEDAC (Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council) nga na-approve na namin both Houses of Congress at nasa final stages na. Either pirma na lang ng Pangulo, or nasa Bicameral Conference Committee Meetings na lang, which is going to be a law very, very soon,” Zubiri said following the 4th LEDAC meeting in Malacanang.
“So, mayroon pa kaming, of course, utang dahil hindi pa namin natatapos. But we committed to the President all 23 measures, hopefully will be done by June before the Senate break or sine die break. So ‘yan ang commitment namin sa House of Representatives together with the President. But we’re on track to pass all of these by June.”
Zubiri said fifteen of the measures will be completed before the Senate’s Sine die adjournment and the remaining eight will be passed by June.
On the part of the House of Representatives, House Speaker Martin Romualdez said all the LEDAC priority measures have been completed and were transmitted to the Senate. “At ‘yung dahilan kung bakit nauna po kami kaya kailangan tapusin naman natin talaga yung House bago i-akyat natin sa Senate. Kaya parati nating tinutukan ‘yung ating mga LEDAC priority measures para hindi madedelay ang deliberasyon sa Senate kaya parating–hindi naman sa minamadali pero ino- overtime talaga natin sa House,” Romuladez said.
During the 6th LEDAC Technical Working Group Meeting on January 16, 2024, 21 bills were identified as priority measures for passage by June this year but were eventually narrowed down to 15 considering the limited remaining session days.
The LEDAC, however, moved to add five more priority measures that will support social and economic initiatives to be passed by June 2024. These include Open Access in Digital Transmission Act, Enterprise-based Education Programme (Apprenticeship Act), CREATE More, An Act Creating the Department of Water Management and Amendments to the Universal Health Care Act.
Among the 15 priority measures for passage by the end of June include 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 (PENCAS), and the Negros Island Region Act. Also on the list include the Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act, 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 (ROTC) and National Service Training Program (NSTP), Unified System of Separation, Retirement, and Pension of Military and Uniformed Personnel, E-Government Act/E-Governance Act, and Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program Act.
Of the 57 total number of Common Legislative Agenda bills for the 19th Congress, 14 have been signed into law while 43 are remaining. Signed into law were 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.
