With the 2023 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) or proposed national budget expected to have smooth sailing for the rest of its way to Malacañang, the House of Representatives and Senate may now focus on other vital pieces of legislation.
And there are 30 such measures under the Marcos administration, according to House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
These were placed on the legislature's list Monday, Oct. 10 as Romualdez and his Senate counterpart, Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri held the all-important Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting in Malacañang with President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.
“The House and the Senate will give these 30 measures utmost priority. President Marcos clearly spelled out a roadmap of governance in the next six years for economic recovery, with agriculture as the major engine for growth and employment,” Romualdez said.
For all intents and purposed, the 30 measure are now collectively dubbed the legislatures "Common Legislative Agenda (CLA)".
Also adopted as the 31st and 32nd CLA measures during LEDAC were the SIM Card Registration Act that was signed into law that same day by President Marcos and the proposed postponement of the barangay and SK Elections (BSKE) to October 2023, which is still awaiting the Chief Executive's signature as of this posting.
Twenty of the bills under the CLA comprised the priority measures enumerated by Marcos during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July.
These are the Valuation Reform Bill, Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA), E-Governance Act, E-Government 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, 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 the Condonation of Unpaid Amortization and Interests of Loans of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries.
“President Marcos called for the enactment of 20 priority measures and both Houses of Congress heeded the call. The ball is now rolling and this administration's plight to improve the current situation of our country has just begun," Romualdez said.
In addition to the 20 priority measures from the SONA, Romualdez said the Senate and the House also identified an additional 12 priority bills, including the newly signed SIM Card Registration Act and BSKE as part of the CLA.
The remaining 10 measures are as follows: The Establishment of Regional Specialty Hospitals, the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers, Establishing the Negros Island Region, The New Philippine Passport Act, Waste-to-Energy Bill, The Apprenticeship Act, Providing Free Legal Assistance for Military and Uniformed Personnel, The Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers, The Creation of the Leyte Ecological Industrial Zone, and The Creation of the Eastern Visayas Development Authority.
“As Speaker of the House, I am inviting stakeholders from the Executive and Judicial Branch as well as all private sector stakeholders to join our legislators in deliberating and scrutinizing these measures to ensure that only the best possible version of the bill are reported out by the House of Representatives," Romualdez, Leyte’s 1st district representative, said.
“I am looking forward to working with the Senate, the Judiciary, and the Executive Branch, under the leadership of President Marcos Jr., in putting plan into action and implementing our unified goal for a better Philippines and its people,” he added.