THE 17th Congress formally opened on Monday, with Senator Aquilino Pimentel III assuming his post as Senate president and Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez taking the position of speaker of the House.
Pimentel said fairness would be the guiding principle in the implementation of the program of government for change that the majority of the senators had agreed upon.
The introduction of genuine and meaningful change, he said, was the purpose of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
On the other hand, Alvarez urged his fellow lawmakers to be “instruments of change” and help President Duterte achieve the genuine change he promised the nation.
He said Duterte was elected because of his vow for genuine change, but it was impossible to bring about change alone without the support of Congress and the other branches of government.
“We must give the President the necessary legislation that will be his tools to effect meaningful and genuine change. In sum, we too must be instruments of change,” Alvarez said.
He called for the restoration of the death penalty for heinous crimes, which is part of Duterte’s tough stance against criminality and the illegal drug trade.
Pimentel spelled out the essential elements of the Program of Change agreed upon by the majority of the senators.
“But even as we will do what needs to be done for the good of our people pursuant to our mandate as legislators, we will also support the legislative initiatives that President Rodrigo Duterte envisions as necessary to promote the public welfare,” Pimentel said.
“In short, my dear colleagues, if we follow the mantra ‘The Poorest First, the Poor Second!’, we will never go wrong.
“The fact is that even if the people cannot realistically expect us to solve all the problems besetting our society today, the thing is that the people who put us in power wish us to do our best.
“One evidence of that Change coming to this Chamber is the fact that you, my dear colleagues, have made it possible for the lone representative of the PDP Laban to be elected president of the Chamber.”
Pimentel said he was proud to say that the value of “subordination of personal interest to the common good” could be found in the Senate of the Philippines.
He also found it gratifying that for the first time in the history of our country, a Mindanaoan, Rodrigo Duterte, the extraordinary mayor of Davao City, had assumed office as the newly elected President of the nation.