Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 7) – The list of the Marcos administration’s priority measures has grown to 42 with the inclusion of 11 new bills, including the proposed creation of the Maharlika investment fund (MIF).
House Speaker Martin Romualdez shared the bills added to the priorities of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) ahead of the resumption of session in Congress Monday.
“President Marcos approved eleven bills designed to address key issues on public health, job creation, and further stimulate economic growth as part of his administration’s priority legislation. These measures will be the focus of our legislative efforts when Congress resumes session on Monday,” Romualdez said Sunday.
The proposed creation of the MIF was approved by the House in December last year. It has yet to reach the Senate plenary.
Aside from the MIF bill, the 10 new priority measures approved by Marcos are the following:
⁃ amendments to the law on Armed Forces officers’ fixed term;
⁃ the bill on ease of paying taxes;
⁃ the bill on local government units’ income classification;
⁃ amendments to the Universal Health Care Law;
⁃ Bureau of Immigration modernization bill;
⁃ bill on the Infrastructure Development Plan/Build Build Build program;
⁃ Philippine Salt Industry Development Act;
⁃ Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System;
⁃ the National Employment Action Plan; and
⁃ amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act.
The House and Senate have 12 session days to act on pending bills before adjourning anew on June 2. The first four measures on the list have already been approved by the House, while the rest are pending at the committee level in the lower chamber.
With the first regular session of the 19th Congress in its homestretch, Romualdez said the House will also do its best to approve the eight remaining bills on the initial list of the LEDAC’s legislative priorities.
“It will be on a best-effort basis. We will try to pass the remaining eight bills from the original priority list. If we could do that, we would have approved all the urgent measures identified by President Marcos in less than a year,” Romualdez said.
The eight priority bills that Marcos mentioned in his first State of the Nation Address that have yet to be approved by the House are the following:
⁃ the bill establishing regional specialty hospitals;
⁃ the bill enabling the natural gas industry;
⁃ the National Land Use Act;
⁃ creation of the Department of Water Resources and Services and creation of Water Regulatory Commission;
⁃ Budget Modernization Act;
⁃ National Defense Act;
⁃ Electric Power Industry Reform Act; and
