House members motivated to work harder
THE high approval rating of the House of Representatives inspires the members to work harder in the remaining days of the First Regular Session of the 19th Congress.
This is according to Cavite Rep. Elpidio Barzaga Jr. as he expressed elation over the high trust rating of the Congress and also of Speaker Martin Romualdez in the latest Pulse Asia survey.
Before the Lenten season break of the House of Representatives last month, the chamber approved on third and final reading 23 of 31 bills identified by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) as priority measures of the Marcos administration.
Signed into law by the President are two measures: the SIM Registration Act now in effect and the bill postponing the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to October this year.
Aside from these, there are 20 other LEDAC-endorsed bills – collectively known as the Common Legislative Agenda (CLA) of Malacañang and Congress – that were approved on third and final reading: Magna Carta of Seafarers, Negros Island Region, E-Governance Act / E-Government Act, Virology, Institute of the Philippines, Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act, National Disease Prevention Management Authority or Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Medical Reserve Corps, Philippine Passport Act; Internet Transaction Act / E-Commerce Law, Waste-to-Energy Bill, Free Legal Assistance for Police and Soldiers, Apprenticeship Act, Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law, Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers, Valuation Reform, Eastern Visayas Development Authority, Leyte Ecological Industrial Zone Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery, National Citizens Service Training Program, and Rightsizing the National Government.
One LEDAC bill, the Agrarian Reform Debts Condonation, is now up for approval by the bicameral conference committee.
The eight other LEDAC bills pending in the House are the: Regional Specialty Hospitals (for second reading approval), Enabling Law for the Natural Gas Industry (under technical working group or TWG deliberation), National Land Use Act (TWG); Department of Water Resources and Services and Creation of Water Regulatory Commission (TWG), Electric Power Industry Reform Act (for committee deliberation), Budget Modernization (for committee deliberation), National Defense Act (for committee deliberation), and Unified System of Separation, Retirement and Pension for Uniformed Personnel (also for committee deliberation).
The latest Pulse Asia survey shows Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez both receiving a 51 percent approval rating while Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo got a 43 percent.
The survey, which was conducted from March 15 to 19, said only 12 percent disapproved of Romualdez’s performance, 10 percent for Zubiri and 15 percent for Gesmundo.
Both President Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte also received high approval ratings, with 78 percent and 83 percent of respondents approving of their performances, respectively.
