House of Representatives (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

The House of Representatives passed another Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC)-listed bill on third and final reading during plenary session.

Given final approval on late Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 22 was House Bill (HB) No. 8400, also known as the “Trabaho para sa Pilipino Act". It basically means "Jobs for Filipinos". 

The bill seeks to institutionalize and expand the present National Employment Recovery Strategy (NERS) to a jobs creation plan. 

It moved past the House after getting a nominal voting result of 235-3-0 (yes-no-abstain). Bills identified by LEDAC are basically priority measures of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. 

House Speaker Martin Romualdez said the Covid-19 pandemic resulted to the closure or downsizing of many businesses, which in turn meant the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. 

“Now that we are recovering gradually from the health crisis, we have to regain lost jobs and create more employment and income opportunities for our people,” Romualdez said in a statement following HB No.8400's third reading passage. 

The Leyte 1st district congressman said the expansion of NERS created under Executive Order (EO) No. 140 into a comprehensive national jobs creation blueprint was the House's answer to the problems of unemployment and underemployment. 

“Through this plan, and with the cooperation of the concerned agencies and especially of local government units (LGUs) throughout the country, we hope to address these twin issues related to employment,” Romualdez said. 

HB No. 8400 is a consolidation of two related measures authored by Parañaque Rep. Gus Tambunting and Rep. Eduardo “Bro. Eddie” Villanueva of CIBAC Party-list. 

The proposal creates an inter-agency council for jobs and investments to be chaired by the secretary of trade and industry, with the secretary of labor and employment as co-chairperson. 

The secretaries of finance, budget and migrant workers, director general of the National Economic and Development Authority, head of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), one representative from employers’ organizations, and one representative from labor groups will sit as council members. 

The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) will serve as the council’s secretariat. The inter-agency body is mandated to formulate a medium-term and long-term jobs creation plan (JCP) that shall include objectives and targets, action components, success measures, and performance indicators. 

It shall harmonize the employment, livelihood and training projects and programs of the national government toward the preservation and creation of more jobs. 

It shall collaborate with LGUs in planning, devising and implementing employment recovery and job generation programs within their localities.