Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte from Camarines Sur on Saturday expressed optimism that with a final joint push in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the 19th Congress still has time to pass the amendatory bill aimed at better promoting and protecting the welfare of all animals.
“If everything turns out right, I believe there is still time for both the Senate and the House of Representatives to pass down the wire the proposed amendatory law toning up the 26-year-old Animal Welfare Act by way of establishing a much better system of state supervision and regulation for dealing with animals,” Villafuerte said.
“By amending the Animal Welfare Act, we aim to optimize public awareness of responsible pet ownership through education and information dissemination; and to strengthen interagency, multisectoral and local-government cooperation for promoting good animal welfare,” he said.
Villafuerte has introduced House Bill 6059 that aims to put more weight on the law by, among others, slapping harsher penalties on errant individuals, establishing a Bureau to be attached to the Department of Agriculture (DA) to safeguard the rights of animals, and deputizing animal welfare enforcement officers with the powers to seize and rescue maltreated or illegally traded animals and arrest violators.
Pending before the House Committee on Agriculture and Food, HB 6059 seeks to tweak Republic Act 8485, or the Animal Welfare Act of 1998 and RA 10631, which amended RA 9485.