Dalipe

House seeks to okay vital bills before session break

September 9, 2022 Jester P. Manalastas 464 views

IMPORTANT measures such as postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) and the registration of all postpaid and prepaid mobile phone subscriber identity module (SIM) cards are being eyed to be approved before the October 1 break.

This is according to House Majority Leader Manuel Jose “Mannix” Dalipe following the leaders meeting held recently.

Dalipe said, Speaker Martin Romualdez met Senate President Migz Zubiri and Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva met Thursday night (September 8) to discuss common legislative agenda.

“The House and Senate leaderships are eyeing the postponement of barangay and SK elections and passage of SIM card registration bill before our adjournment this September. This is to ensure that the entire Congress is moving forward in the same direction,” Dalipe said.

On the part of the House, Dalipe said the proposed national budget amounting to P5.268 trillion will be passed by October 1.

Under the House proposal, it seeks the postponement of the barangay and BSKE scheduled on December 5, 2022 to December 4, 2023.

Last Monday, the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology approved the SIM card registration bill to lessen scams and criminal activities.

At the same time, Dalipe said top House leaders reiterated their commitment to fully support the administration’s legislative agenda that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. enumerated during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) by acting on these measures “with dispatch”.

“Our main priority is economic recovery, with agriculture as the key driver for growth and employment. We will push for the passage of more reform-oriented measures to improve good governance and uplift the lives of Filipinos. We are here to serve the people,” he said.

The priority measures enumerated by President Marcos in his SONA were the Valuation Reform Bill, Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA), E-Governance Act, Internet Transaction Act, Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE) bill, Medical Reserve Corps bill, National Disease Prevention Management Authority bill, Virology Institute of the Philippines bill, Unified System of Separation, Retirement and Pension bill; Department of Water Resources bill, E-Governance Act, National Land Use Act, Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and National Service Training Program, Budget Modernization bill, National Government Rightsizing Program, National Defense Act, Enactment of an Enabling Law for the Natural Gas Industry, Amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, Amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law, and condonation for agrarian reform beneficiaries.