While we respect Ms. Sara Soliven De Guzman’s views and insights on the Senate’s performance during the present 16th Congress as documented on her October 13, column titled “The 16th Congress — Did our tax money go to waste?,” her presentation of bills that have been signed into law by the President hardly cover the full extent and effect of the 16th Congress’ work and accomplishments, especially in the Senate.
In the First Regular Session of the 16th Congress from July 22, 2013 to June 11, 2014, the Senate alone approved more than 19 bills and 41 resolutions. Ten more bills passed by Congress are also waiting for the signature of President Aquino. Since the Second Regular Session opened, the Senate has passed four bills seen to expand the reach of the nation’s educational services, including the “Iskolar ng Bayan Act,” which would give approximately 80,000 graduating students access to free college education as early as next year. Of the priority measures clamored for by Ms. De Guzman in her article, we note that the Senate has already passed the FOI measure and the amendments to the Sandiganbayan Law on third and final reading months ago.
The importance of the measures passed by the Senate should not be so readily dismissed, especially their effect to the lives of our countrymen. Among the bills enacted into law mentioned by Ms. De Guzman, RA 10635, or the MARINA Act, helped prevent the dismissal of 80,000 Filipino seafarers working in European waters due to a looming European Union sanction. Another law — RA 10641, which allows foreign ownership of domestic banks — is part of a group of proposed legislation that Senate President Franklin Drilon has vowed to pass in Congress, in order to help secure the country’s macroeconomic fundamentals in time for the ASEAN economic integration in 2015. A special session in both houses of Congress is being eyed in May and June of 2015 to ensure that all such economic reform bills will see timely passage.
Despite the overwhelming media attention to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigations, legislative work remains the primary focus of the senators. No less than Senate President Franklin M. Drilon has said that the only way for the Senate to rebuild its institutional credibility is by working harder in passing laws that are of paramount relevance and benefit to the lives of the Filipino. It is a perspective that has proven true — in the latest SWS survey, public satisfaction ratings of the Senate has soared by 16 points in the third quarter of the year. The Senate thus intends to fully perform its mandate to every Filipino, and to everything the Philippine Senate is supposed to represent. — Sammy Santos, Senate Print Media Director