House Speaker Martin Romualdez (Facebook)

Speaker Martin Romualdez played up during plenary session on Wednesday night, Sept. 25 the contributions made by the House of Representatives, and Congress in general, to the economic flourish that the Philippines is experiencing. 

“I congratulate you all, not only for your tremendous understanding of the country’s development goals and priorities, but most importantly, for translating these goals and priorities to deliver tangible and beneficial changes to our constituents,” Romualdez told his colleagues in his speech. 

“We remain true to our objective to pursue an agenda for prosperity, and enable every Filipino to directly experience and equitably share in the gains brought by our collective and solid efforts,” he said. 

He said their priority “has always been the formulation of vital pieces of legislation aimed at poverty alleviation, agricultural productivity, food security, income growth, human capital development, and increased employment opportunities". 

“We matched our words with actions, and we shall persist in our endeavors to attain significant progress,” said the leader of the 300-plus strong chamber. 

The Leyte 1st district congressman reported that their legislative initiatives “have brought encouraging results". 

Romualdez cited the recent National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) report, which said that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) accelerated to 6.3 percent in the second quarter of this year. This was faster than the adjusted 5.8 percent growth rate recorded in the first quarter. 

“This significant development brings our real GDP growth to six percent for the first half of the year, keeping us on track to achieve our target growth rate of 6 to 7 percent for 2024,” he said. 

“We are on our way as one of Asia’s best-performing major emerging economies,” Romualdez said. He notes that the Philippines is second to Vietnam, whose growth is estimated at 6.9 percent, but ahead of Malaysia (5.8 percent), Indonesia, (5.1 percent), and China (4.7 percent). 

'Dapat dama ng Pinoy' 

He says the continuing challenge is how economic growth would be felt by most Filipinos, especially the poor. 

“We could only claim genuine victory over our nation’s challenges when every Filipino benefits from the outcome of our legislative performance and the impact resonates in their lives,” he said. 

Romualdez recalled that he personally witnessed the decrease in the price of rice during a recent visit to three big public markets in Metro Manila. 

He said the decrease “is mainly due to the effective measures implemented by President Marcos to lower the prices of rice, stabilize food supply, and shelter consumers from price fluctuations.” 

The House chief mentioned Executive Order (EO) No. 62, signed by the President last June 20, which reduced the import tariff on rice from 35 percent to 15 percent. 

“With the impending approval of the amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, we expect better and more stringent policies to further reduce the prices of our agricultural products,” he said. 

The Speaker thanked his colleagues for the “impressive performance of the House of Representatives to safeguard our nation’s coffers". 

“You have consistently displayed enthusiasm, fairness, and thorough scrutiny of the budget which led to the prompt approval of the 2025 general appropriations bill on third and final reading,” he said.