House appropriations panel chair vows backing for remaining Marcos priority bills
Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co (Facebook)
Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co is supporting the House leadership's push to pass the Marcos administration’s 13 remaining priority measures in his capacity as House Committee on Appropriations chairman. Co, in a statement Tuesday, May 9, said: "We need to work together to ensure that these bills are given the utmost attention and deliberation they deserve," he said. The Bicolano made this remark a day after the resumption of sessions in the House of Representatives following a five-week summer break. It is the task of his committee to deliberate on the appropriations or funding provision of a given bill. On Monday, May 8, House Speaker Martin Romualdez led an all-party caucus wherein he rallied the attendees in the mission to pass as many of the 13 bills as possible before the scheduled adjournment sine die adjournment on June 2. Co, a second-term solon, attended the meeting in his role as president of the Party-list Coalition Foundation, Inc. (PCFI). The 13 bills are the 1. proposed enabling law for the natural gas industry; 2. National Land Use Act; 3. Department of Water Resources and Services and creation ofWater Regulatory Commission; 4. Budget Modernization Act; 5. National Defense Act; 6. amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act; 7. the bill on a unified system of separation, retirement, and pension for uniformed personnel; 8. Bureau of Immigration Modernization; 9. Infrastructure Development Plan/Build Build Build Program; 10. Philippine Salt Industry Development Act; 11. Philippine Ecosystem and NaturalCapital Accounting System (PENCAS), 12. National Employment Action Plan; 13. Amendment to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act. So far, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has identified a total of 42 priority measures.
Co further said that the House is committed to workin the executive branch to ensure that these measures are passed into law for the benefit of Filipinos.