House passes two Marcos priority bills past midnight; MUP pension bill clears lower chamber

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives passed on final reading two priority bills by the Marcos administration in a hybrid session past midnight on Tuesday.

Without a physical quorum in the session hall, the lower chamber quietly passed on final reading House Bill 8969, the military and uniformed personnel (MUP) pension system reform bill, and House Bill 8937, which seeks to create a new fiscal regime for the mining sector.

Two press releases by the Office of Speaker Martin Romualdez sent to media at 2 a.m. said that the two Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) priority measures were approved “early Tuesday morning.”

During the voting for HB 8969, Rep. Raoul Manuel (Kabataan Partylist) raised a point of order and cited Section 89 of the House Rules that allows hybrid sessions to be conducted only when physically meeting is extremely difficult or impossible. Manuel was outvoted by the majority.

At the time lawmakers voted for the two priority measures, there were only 25 to 30 lawmakers present in the session hall.

Similarly, Rep. Arlene Brosas (Gabriela Women’s Party) asked the lower chamber why lawmakers were passing important pleasures in the middle of the night.

“In fact, we were told before to do (this) in face-to-face sessions. That’s the only we can do being in the minority — that we ask everyone to get involved in bills that would have a nationwide effect,” Brosas said.

“It’s not good optics for us to pass a bill in the middle of the night – at 12:24 a.m.,” she said.

In a statement on Tuesday noon, House Secretary General Reginald Velasco said that the hybrid session, which started at 9 in the morning and ended after midnight, was authorized by House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

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