MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives adjourned its first regular session this week after approving 14 national bills and over a hundred local measures.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the chamber is set to “hit the ground running” when it resumes work next month.
“Our performance a year in office speaks for itself. Despite being the biggest in terms of membership, we continue to register the most robust plenary attendance per session day which, based on official data, average 94.25 percent of our membership,” Belmonte told his colleagues at the close of session Wednesday night.
He said the record, unparalleled in the history of the chamber, was complemented by the frequent meetings of committees or a total of 844 public hearings in 73 session days.
“The hard work of our members has made it possible for us to process – at both the committee and plenary levels – a total of 1,658 measures, or an average of 23 measures per session day,” Belmonte said.
He said 10 months after the 15th Congress opened, the House has approved on third reading 113 national bills and 147 local bills, and adopted 121 regular and 717 resolutions on inquiries in aid of legislation.
Aside from the 2011 General Appropriations Act or the P1.645-trillion national budget, the chamber also approved the Government-Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC) Governance Act that was immediately signed into law by President Aquino on Monday.
“This law reforms and curbs the excesses of our GOCCs, which for the longest time, have dealt a dual blow on the public not only because of their underperformance, but also because they siphoned scarce resources into the private pockets of a few,” he said.
The House also passed the Data Privacy Act in a bid to further facilitate the growth and expansion of the country’s business process outsourcing sector, as well as bill seeking to integrate kindergarten into the basic education system, grant discounts on basic and higher education services to underprivileged students, and strengthen the ladderized interface between technical-vocational and higher education.
The chamber also approved the bill that extended the implementation of the lifeline rate under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act.
He said the chamber approved the controversial bill postponing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao elections “not out of an abhorrence for the strengthening of democracy in the autonomous region, but because we recognized that elections, forced at this crucial juncture in the region’s history, may once more trigger political and clannish violence, and lead further to the deepening divisiveness and rancor among the peoples of the region.”
He vowed that the House would hit the ground running in approving bills calendared for plenary debates, including the Anti-trust Act that promotes competitiveness; Amended Witness Protection Act; Whistleblowers’ Protection Act; Universal Healthcare Act; National Land Use Policy; Land Administration Reform Act; Government Procurement Reform Act; Fiscal Incentives Rationalization Act; Fiscal Responsibility Act; and the Public-Private Partnership in Infrastructure Development Act.
Meanwhile, of the almost 3,000 bills filed since June last year, the Senate has passed only a handful while conducting 155 hearings and inquiries.
Three laws, namely the 2011 General Appropriations Act, the GOCC Governance Act and the postponement of the August 2011 ARMM elections, were the only significant pieces of legislation that were produced by the Senate and the House of Representatives combined.
Only just begun
In spite of what seemed to be a rather unproductive first regular session, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile was happy with the work of the chamber in fulfilling its “mandate and trust that the people have bestowed upon all of us.”
“We have five years ahead of us and we have to finish all our legislative plans within that span of time, or even sooner. We have only just begun,” Enrile said in his speech before the adjournment of the last session day last Wednesday.
Aside from the three bills that were enacted into law, Enrile cited 11 other measures that were approved by the Senate on third reading, namely:
The bills providing for additional benefits and protection to household helpers or the Batas Kasambahay; mandatory immunization against Hepatitis-B for infants; two minor amendments to the Family Code of the Philippines; decriminalizing vagrancy; a minor amendment of the Revised Penal Code; removal of night work prohibitions on women in the Labor Code of the Philippines; ensuring the timely release of retirement pay and benefits for government workers; extension of the lifeline rate for power; and the improvement of the pre-school program in the country or the Early Years Act.
Out of the 23 bills that President Aquino listed as his priority measures, only four were passed by the Senate before it adjourned, namely the GOCC Governance Act, ARMM elections postponement, extension of the lifeline rate and the removal of night work prohibition on women.
“Let me assure our people that the Senate continues to pore over and study a range of general and specific problems and issues facing the nation,” he added.
The committee on the accountability of public officers and investigations or the Blue Ribbon committee conducted 14 hearings on the controversial plea bargain agreement between former military comptroller Carlos Garcia and the Office of the Ombudsman and corruption in the military.
“The investigations not only made our people understand the truth about the agreement, the series of hearings also eventually unearthed multi-million peso graft cases and corrupt practices in the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” Enrile said. With Marvin Sy