Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Monday, October 10 said the first Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting hosted by Malacanang is a ‘’success.’’
This after the Senate and the House of Representative leaderships presented their common legislative priorities for discussion with the executive branch.
Zubiri presented a total of 26 priority bills, 20 of which were priority measures mentioned by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA).
The Senate chief said the meeting allowed the legislative and the executive branches of government to synchronize their priority measures.
“It’s very timely that we had our first LEDAC right before budget season. That is going to be taking up most of our time in the plenary once we resume session, and we needed this LEDAC to identify the bills we must make room for alongside the budget,” he said.
“This LEDAC was a success in that regard,’’ Zubiri said.
“We have had a productive meeting where we reaffirmed our commitment to a common legislative agenda. We have pledged passage of bills which will accelerate our pandemic recovery, insulate our hardworking families from the inflationary fallout from global disruptions, and anchor our regions and sectors on stronger fundamentals to build resiliency and secure our future,’’ he added.
During the meeting, Zubiri indicated that the Senate and the House have agreed to pass the following measures by year-end: Medical Reserve Corps; National Disease Prevention Management Authority/Center for Disease Prevention and Control; Virology Science and Technology Institute of the Philippines; Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and National Service Training Program; Amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law; and Condonation of Unpaid Amortization and Interest on Loans of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries
The rest of the priority bills are: National Government Rightsizing Program; Budget Modernization Bill; Tax Package 3: Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Bill; Tax Package 4: Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA); E-Government Act; Internet Transactions Act/E-Commerce Law; Government Financial Institutions (GFIs) Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE) Bill; Department of Water Resources; Unified System of Separation, Retirement and Pension for Military and Uniformed Personnel; E-Governance Act; National Land Use Act; National Defense Act; Enabling Law for the Natural Gas Industry; Amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act; Regional Specialty Hospitals; Magna Carta for Filipino Seafarers; Waste-to-Energy Law; Amendments to the Passport (Lifetime Validity for Senior Citizens); and Negros Island Region.
The SIM Registration Act was also part of the list, and was set to be signed by the President in a ceremony after the LEDAC meeting.
This is the first law passed in the 19th Congress.
Zubiri emphasized that in the previous administration, the Senate and the House were able to efficiently push hard-to-pass measures through plenary, thanks to the “great inter-parliamentary working relationship between the Senate and the House leaderships, especially the seamless coordination between the now Speaker of the House, Speaker Romualdez, and yours truly, when we were both majority leaders of our respective chambers,’’ Zubiri said.
“There was always synergy in all our efforts,” he said.
Now that he and Romualdez are heading the Senate and the House, Zubiri assured that the administration “can expect the same level of working relationship and coordination between our respective chambers’ leadership in passing priority legislation.”
“The cogs of the legislative mill are fully functioning. We in Congress have started on the right footing, on the right direction, kaya’t mataas po ang pag-asa namin na magiging madali ang ugnayan ng Executive at Legislative branches of government para matugunan ang mga pangangailangan ng ating mamamayan (that is why there is great hope that the working relationship between the Executive and Legislative branches of government would address the needs of our countrymen),’’ he explained.
“This morning’s conference was proof of statesmanship and multi-partisanship at work, where Senate can engage the other branch while upholding its independence and initiative on policies which serve the national interest and people’s welfare,’’ he added.