House to pass 25 bills before Holy Week break

MANILA, Philippines –  The House of Representatives would be able to pass as many as 25 significant measures before Congress goes on the Holy Week break in March, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said yesterday.

Belmonte said the House was able to initially list 135 important measures out of the thousands of bills filed since the 15th Congress opened last July. 

This was trimmed to 80 bills and last week, to 25, including the proposals filed by Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Belmonte led a cluster of lawmakers in drawing up the final list based on the priorities set by President Aquino.

The priority measures include the Medium Term Philippine Development Plan, and the lists submitted by the administration and opposition blocs in the House, Belmonte said.

He said the 15th Congress also amended its rules to help fast-track legislation where bills that were nearly approved in the immediately preceding Congress would be given very short work.

“So these actions, I think, will result in faster consideration of bills. Now, this current session, we will have a Holy Week recess on March 24. So before March 24, we can pass 20 to 25 bills,” Belmonte said.

He said legislative work on the bills would be on top of the deliberations of priority measures set by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting to be convened soon by President Aquino in Malacañang.

Among the bills in the House list of “do-ables” and priorities are those on amending the witness protection program; the national land use policy; rationalization of fiscal incentives; the Anti-Trust Act; the Fiscal Responsibility Act; the Whistle Blowers Act; procurement law amendments; providing a 12-year basic education system and mandatory health coverage; amending the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Charter and the Anti-Money Laundering Law; strengthening anti-smuggling provisions in the Tariff and Customs Code; modernizing the Bureau of Customs; adopting a pocket open skies policy; and the Anti-Cybercrime Act.