Congress to pass 20 priority bills

MANILA, Philippines — Lawmakers yesterday committed to pass 20 priority measures aimed at promoting development and attaining socioeconomic transformation within the remaining sessions of Congress.

Members of the Cabinet and congressional leaders came up with a list of priority bills during the fifth Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting led by President Marcos at Malacañang.

“The council came up with a list of top priority bills that the members, the leaders of both houses of Congress, commit to pass within the remaining period of the current session,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said in a statement issued by the Presidential Communications Office.

“So, these are ten bills that are considered top priority. And there’s a second list that consists of another ten. I think that’s another ten bills. And also the other bills that are in advanced stages, that are either at the (bicameral) stages or already enrolled bills,” he added.

In an Instagram post, President Marcos said the priority bills were related to addressing rising prices, job generation and fighting poverty.

“Just concluded the 5th LEDAC meeting, where we laid out our top legislative priorities – addressing rising prices, increasing job opportunities and reducing poverty,” Marcos said.

“We continue to work hand in hand with the Senate and House of Representatives in enacting transformative legislation for a Bagong Pilipinas,” he added.

The ten priority measures that lawmakers aim to approve before the end of the 19th Congress are the Reform to Philippine Capital Markets, Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, Amendments to the Right-of-Way Act, Excise Tax on Single-Use Plastics, Rationalization of the Mining Fiscal Regime, Amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA, Department of Water Resources, CREATE MORE Act, Amendments to the Foreign Investors’ Long-Term Lease Act and Amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law.

Measures included in the second priorities list are the Blue Economy Act, Enterprise-Based Education and Training Framework Act, Amendments to the Universal Health Care Act, Open Access in Data Transmission Act, Waste-to-Energy Bill,