What happened during the 1st LEDAC-TWG meeting? Quimbo answers

House Committee on Appropriations senior vice chairperson and Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo has given reporters an idea of what went down during the lawmakers' first Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC)- Technical Working Group (TWG) meeting last week.

Quimbo, in news forum Tuesday, Aug. 16, said TWG meeting was held to expedite the approval of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s priority bills and ensure that government resources will not be put to waste.

"Ang sabi ni Speaker (Speaker Martin Romualdez said), let us use the LEDAC as a platform to ensure that our legislation ,” Quimbo said. The meeting was held on Aug. 11.

“The first LEDAC-TWG meeting was held last week, ang pinaka-importante (and the most important thing) is to ensure that we will be able to pass the swiftest possible time the 19 legislative priority measures that have been identified by the President. Kasama doon ang pagbabalik-tanaw kung anong nangyari in the past Congress, at anong naging problema particularly doon sa vetoed bills (We also looked back at what happened during the previous Congress, and what was the problem with the vetoed bills),” she noted.

During the LEDAC-TWG meeting, Quimbo said that eight of the 19 legislative priority measures of President Marcos were already approved on third and final reading by the previous 18th Congress.

She said these measures are eligible for swift approval under rule 10, section 48 of the House of Representatives.

The economist-solon said the use of this particular rule would hasten consideration and endorsement by any committee of any covered bill, and its eventual plenary approval.

The 19 priority measures enumerated by President Marcos in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last month were the Valuation Reform Bill, Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA), E-Governance Act, Internet Transaction Act, 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, and Amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law.

The eight measures approved by 18th Congress were the Valuation Reform Bill, PIFITA, E Governance Act, Internet Transaction Act, GUIDE, Medical Reserve Corps, National Disease Prevention Management Authority, and Virology Institute of the Philippines.

Rule 10, section 48, authorizes the House committees to dispose of priority measures already filed and approved on third reading in the immediately preceding Congress.

“In case of bills or resolutions that are identified as priority measures of the House, which were previously filed in the immediately preceding Congress and have already been approved on third reading, the same may be disposed of as matters already reported upon the approval of the members of the committee present, there being a quorum," Rule 10 stated.