House to pass last 9 must bills — Speaker
SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez has reaffirmed the House of Representatives’ commitment to approve the remaining nine of the 44 urgent measures identified by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).
The nine remaining LEDAC bills in the House of Representatives are the Natural Gas Industry Enabling Law, Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System Bill, National Employment Action Plan, Department of Water Services and Resources, amendments to the Electric Power Industry Act, Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act, Budget Modernization, National Defense Act, and Unified System of Separation, Retirement and Pension for Uniformed Personnel.
The LEDAC has now 44 priority bills from 42 with the inclusion of Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA) and the bill Amending Bank Secrecy Law as part of the 20 measures need to be approved before the year ends during the 2nd LEDAC meeting presided by no less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos, Jr.
AFASA and the bill Amending Bank Secrecy Law have both been approved by the House of Representatives on third and final reading and were transmitted to the Senate for action even before its inclusion to LEDAC measures, bringing to 35 the 44 LEDAC bills that were passed by the institution.
Before the First Regular Session of the 19th Congress ended last June, the House had approved a total of 33 out of the 42 priority measures identified by LEDAC.
The 44 LEDAC measures included four laws such as the SIM Registration Act, Postponement of Barangay / SK Elections, Amending the AFP Fixed Term Bill, Agrarian Reform Debts Condonation, and the Maharlika Investment Fund and ratified the bicam report on the Regional Specialty Centers in Hospitals.
The other LEDAC bills approved by the House of Representatives on third and final reading include Virology Institute of the Philippines, Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA) (Package 4), National Disease Prevention Management Authority or Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Health Emergency Auxiliary Reinforcement Team (HEART) Act, New Philippine Passport Act, Internet Transaction Act / E-Commerce Law, Waste-to-Energy Bill, Free Legal Assistance for Police and Soldiers, Apprenticeship Act, Amendment to the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) /Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Act, Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers, Valuation Reform Bill (Package 3), Eastern Visayas Development Authority (EVDA), Leyte Ecological Industrial Zone, Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE), Instituting a National Citizens Service Training (NCST) Program, Magna Carta of Seafarers, E-Governance Act /E-Government Act, Negros Island Region, Rightsizing the National Government, Ease of Paying Taxes, Automatic Income Classification Act for Local Government Units, Amendment to Universal Health Care Act, Infrastructure Development Plan/Build Build Build Program, National Land Use Act, Bureau of Immigration Modernization, and Philippine Salt Industry Development Act.
Romualdez said this can be attributed to the tireless efforts of the members of the House of Representatives as he also acknowledged that “the hard work is far from over.”
“This will ensure exhaustive discussion and careful consideration of the measures, as well as give way to the deliberations of the 2024 General Appropriations Bill,” Romualdez said.
