House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Speaker’s office)


The House of Representatives is looking to improve its processes in a bid to achieve its legislative targets this 2023. Thus, bared House Speaker Martin Romualdez, despite the fact that the solons are coming off a very prolific first regular session wherein they got a mountain of work done. “Processes and systems can always be improved. I believe there are still better ways we can perform our mandate of legislation without sacrificing the quality of our work,” Romualdez, Leyte's 1st district representative, said in a statement. He said that if the productivity of the House during the first year of the 19th Congress is any indication, then he is confident that the chamber can accomplish its goals for the rest of 2023. For the rest of 2023, congressmen will be eyeing the timely passage of the proposed P5.768-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2024 ,which serves as precursor of the national budget. Aside from this, the House members are also committed to pass the proposed National Rightsizing Program; Unified System of Separation, Retirement and Pension of Military and Uniformed Personnel (MUPs); National Employment Action Plan; and the Amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act. These four bills are all that remain for the House to pass from the list of 20 priority measures President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. that were identified during last week's Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting in Malacañang. The 16 other bills were already approved on third and final reading by the Romualdez-led chamber during the first regular session of the 19th Congress. During the first regular session, the House processed a total of 9,600 measures: 8,490 bills, 1,109 resolutions, and one petition. This meant that the chamber processed an average of 30 measures for each session day--10 percent more than what the previous Congress did. The second regular session will begin on July 24., 2023. Lawmakers are currently on recess.