In just five months since she assumed leadership of the House, Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has steered the chamber to pass all of the priority legislative measures of President Rodrigo Duterte as he enumerated in his State of the Nation Address in July.
Arroyo credited her colleagues for working hard to pass all of the President’s 15 priority measures.
In a speech before Congress adjourns for the Christmas break, Arroyo said she was not concerned about her legacy but about carrying out the legislative agenda of the President.
“And as of yesterday, the House can report with confidence that we have already passed the President’s entire legislative agenda as he announced in his 2018 State of the Nation Address. So you all deserve congratulations and thanks,” Arroyo said.
The President’s priority bills included the Bangsamoro Basic Law, Endo or the Security of Tenure Act, Utilization of the Coco Levy Act, National Land Use Act, Creation of the Department of Disaster Resilience, Rice Tariffication, Trabaho Bill or TRAIN 2, Mining Taxes, Alcohol Taxes, Tobacco Taxes, Reform in Property Valuation, Reform in Capitol Income and Financial Taxes, Tax Amnesty Program, Universal Health Care and Revision of the Constitution.
Under Arroyo, the House has processed about 1,361 bills, approved 492 measures of which 95 have been passed into law.
“Thirty-nine bills are ready for the President’s signature; 27 with ratified bicameral reports; 25 on bicameral conference committee; 22 approved on second reading plus 38 resolutions approved. We have processed an average of 33 measures a day,” she said.
“It’s an honor to be House Speaker, and a position that I do not take lightly. And I thank you all for your support and cooperation. As you have seen, my leadership and management style as Speaker is still similar as when I was President. The key words are hard work; selectively hands on, especially in shepherding the 2018 SONA bills of President Duterte to passage by the House; strict, but hopefully fair and open-minded,” she said.
With the passage of all of President Duterte’s priority legislative measures, Arroyo said the House will now pivot to its oversight function in her remaining months as Speaker to help the administration implement the laws and “harvest the results during the final three and a half years of President Duterte’s term.”
“For the remaining months of the 17th Congress, I ask the House to be prepared to give the implementing departments and agencies the support that they may need to the extent that they make this pivot from policy to action, such as by way of House Resolutions from us the elected representatives of the people or through the helpful exercise of House oversight functions next year. We will expect the oversight committees to be very active in the next months or so,” she said.
More than 200 of her colleagues who were at the Plenary as well as House employees and their visitors gave Arroyo a standing ovation after her speech.
Congress goes on a Holiday break beginning Dec. 14. It will resume session on Jan. 14, 2019.
READ: Speaker GMA: Fulfilling the President's Legislative Agenda
