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Friday, March 29, 2024

House workers get early bonus

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Employees of the House of Representatives will get a 700-percent increase in their grocery allowances this year, Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced Monday.

They received only P5,000 a year in grocery allowance during the time of ousted speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, a close ally of President Rodrigo Duterte and the representative of the First District of Davao del Norte.

Arroyo made the announcement as she attended the House’s flag-raising ceremony.

She said August and September were usually belt-tightening months at the House of Representatives, and that the applications for various loans usually increased during these months.

“Well, last August, with the hard work of accounts committee Chairman Yedda Romualdez, you received a grocery allowance of P5,000,” Arroyo said.

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“This month, with the even harder work of Congresswoman Yedda Romualdez, I have been able to authorize the release of P35,000.”

Romualdez, wife of former congressman and Philippine Constitution Association president Martin Romualdez, is the head of the House committee on accounts.

Arroyo also said she was impressed by how well the congressional staff had adjusted to the transition and the extra effort they had done to meet her expectations as Speaker.

“In the last six weeks, I have seen you work very, very hard. I am impressed by how well you adjusted to the transition and the extra effort you made to meet the expectations of the Speaker. Thank you very much. Please keep up the good work,” Arroyo said.

She said her concern now was not her legacy as Speaker but to support Duterte’s legacy. Shortly after assuming the Speakership, she recalled saying her goal was to implement Duterte’s legislative agenda.

“I think those of who you who are involved in the priority legislative agenda, as enunciated in the State of the Nation Address, have experienced and witnessed how we are prioritizing that legislative agenda,” Arroyo said. 

She described her leadership and management style as Speaker as similar to that when she was president. 

“The key words are hard work, selectively hands on, and you’ve seen that with regard to the legislative agenda of the President: strict but hopefully fair and open-minded.”

With the help and support of the House workforce, she said, she expected a productive year with the House under her watch. 

“Fortunately, we are not starting at zero, because the President’s legislative agenda has already been laid out. We just have to roll up our sleeves and get as much done as possible under my watch,” she said.

Arroyo also thanked the congressional staff for their hard work to help the House leadership accomplish Duterte’s legislative agenda.

In what was described as a “coup,” Arroyo was elected Speaker on July 23 a few hours before Duterte delivered his State of the Nation Address, but Alvarez begged the President to allow him to sit with him and Senate President Vicente Sotto III during the Sona.

Alvarez reluctantly relinquished the position after the President’s Sona, but his supporters disrupted House proceedings by taking away the House Mace, forcing the new House leadership to use the Mace used by then Speaker Prospero Nograles.

Alvarez’s mace has yet to resurface.

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