House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Speaker’s office)

The House of Representatives capped on Wednesday night, May 31 a prolific first regular session wherein it processed 9,600 measures, including 33 deemed as priority bills of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. In the 19th Congress.

“Needless to say, our first regular session has been both eventful and productive,” House Speaker Romualdez said in his closing speech in plenary just before the session was adjourned sine die.

The sine die adjournment marked the end of the first regular session, which represented Congress' (House and Senate) first full year working with the Marcos administration.

“Congratulations to everyone for this impressive performance. You did not take your jobs lightly. You conducted yourselves with a sense of pride, professionalism and responsibility. You have carried out your individual roles with zest, making sure that you serve as effective voices of your respective constituents,” said Romualdez, Leyte's 1st district representative.

Under the Speaker's stewardship, the House processed a total of 9,600 measures during the past 10 months. These consisted of 8,490 House bills, 1,109 resolutions and one petition.

"On the average, we were able to process 30 legislative measures per session day, 10 percent more than our output in the previous Congress during the same period," Romualdez said. The House holds sessions from Monday to Wednesday.

It was during the final week of sessions that the lower chamber gave third and final reading approval to two more bills listed by the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC). LEDAC-listed bills are priority legislation.

These two are House Bill (HB) No. 8203 or the proposed Bureau of Immigration (BI) Modernization Act; and HB No. 8278 or the proposed Philippine Salt Industry Development Act. The House vowed to pass these bills over the weekend, and delivered.

"The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading, 33 out of the 42 priority measures listed in our common legislative agenda," Romualdez, president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), said.

The Speaker went on to give special mention to proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), or Philippine sovereign wealth fund. The measure is now up for President Marcos' signature after the two chamber came to an agreement on it.

“[It is] worthy to note is both Houses have earlier agreed on a version of the Maharlika Fund, the country’s first ever sovereign investment fund. This is designed to promote economic development by making strategic and profitable investments in key sectors including public road networks."

Of the 33 LEDAC bills approved by the House, there have already been signed into law. These are the 1. SIM Card Registration, 2. Postponement of Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections, and  3. Attrition Law/Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Fixed Term.

The 30 other House-passed Marcos priority measures are the following:

4.Amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law/Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Bill
5.Medical Reserve Corps Bill
6.National Disease Prevention Management Authority Bill
7.Creation of the Virology Institute of the Philippines
8.Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and National Service Training Program (NSTP)
9.Condonation of Unpaid Amortization and Interests of Loans of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries
10.Internet Transactions Act/E-Commerce Bill
11.Maharlika Investment Fund Bill
12.Revitalizing the Salt Industry Bill
13.Tax Reform Package 3: Valuation Reform
14.E-Government/E-Governance Act
15.National Government Rightsizing Program
16.Tax Reform Package 4: Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA)
17.Waste-to-Energy Bill
18.Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers
19.New Philippine Passport Act
20.Regional Specialty Hospitals Bill
21.Free Legal Assistance for Police and Soldiers
22.National Land Use Act
23.Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers
24.Apprenticeship Law
25.Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE)
26.Leyte Ecological Industrial Zone Bill
27.Eastern Visayas Development Authority
28.Negros Island Region (NIR) Bill
29.Local Government Unit (LGU) Income Classification Bill
30.Ease of Paying Taxes Bill
31.Philippine Immigration Bill
32.Amendments to the Universal Health Care Act
33.Comprehensive Infrastructure Development Master Plan.

The second regular session will start on July 24.