All pending Marcos' priority bills to be enacted by June—legislators

All priority measures under President Marcos' administration are poised to be enacted by June this year, the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) said.

Marcos presided over the fourth LEDAC meeting on Tuesday, March 19, where legislators committed to pass the priority measures.

After the meeting, the President noted that 14 of the 57 priority bills under his administration have been enacted.

"We've enacted 14 of 57 priority bills and are reprioritizing measures to boost livelihood, protect the environment, and strengthen security," Marcos said.

"With seven more bills slated for passage in June, we're advancing towards a stronger Bagong Pilipinas," he added.

During the meeting in Malacañan, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri made a commitment to Marcos to pass all the legislative measures being pushed by the administration by June this year.

According to Zubiri, the measures have been approved and are on final reading, adding that these are either waiting for the President to sign it or are already at the Bicameral Conference Committee Meetings.

“So, mayroon pa kaming, of course, utang dahil hindi pa namin natatapos (We have, of course, some pendings). But we committed to the President all 23 measures, hopefully will be done by June before the Senate break or sine die break," Zubiri said.

"So ‘yan ang commitment namin sa  (So that's our commitment) House of Representatives together with the President. But we’re on track to pass all of these by June," he added.

He further said 15 of the measures will be completed before the Senate’s Sine die adjournment and the remaining eight will be passed by June.

House Speaker Martin Romualdez, on the other hand, said all the LEDAC priority measures have been completed and were transmitted to the Senate.

During the 6th LEDAC Technical Working Group Meeting  last Jan. 16, 21 bills were identified as priority measures for passage by June this year but were eventually narrowed down to 15 considering the limited remaining session days.

The LEDAC, however, moved to add five more priority measures that will support social and economic initiatives to be passed by June 2024.

These include Open Access in Digital Transmission Act, Enterprise-based Education Programme (Apprenticeship Act), CREATE More, An Act Creating the Department of Water Management and Amendments to the Universal Health Care Act.

Among the 15 priority measures for passage by the end of June include the Amendments to Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act/Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, Self-Reliant Defense Posture Act, Philippine Maritime Zones Act, Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act, Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System (PENCAS), and the Negros Island Region Act. Also on the list include the Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act, Value Added Tax on Digital Services, Amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act, Blue Economy Act, Waste-to-Energy Bill, Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and National Service Training Program (NSTP), Unified System of Separation, Retirement, and Pension of Military and Uniformed Personnel, E-Government Act/E-Governance Act, and Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program Act.

Of the 57 total number of Common Legislative Agenda bills for the 19th Congress, 14 have been signed into law while 43 are remaining.

Signed into law were SIM Card Registration Act, Postponement of Barangay/SK elections, Strengthening Professionalism in the AFP, New Agrarian Emancipation Act, Maharlika Investment Fund, Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act, Public-Private Partnership Code of the Philippines, Regional Specialty Centers, Automatic Income Classification of LGUs, Internet Transactions Act, Ease of Paying Taxes Act, Tatak Pinoy (Proudly Filipino) Act, Philippine Salt Industry Development Act and New Philippine Passport Act.