Remarks delivered by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr; Adjournment Sine Die, First Regular Session – 16th Congress
11 June 2014 07:36:03 PM
REMARKS DELIVERED BY
SPEAKER FELICIANO BELMONTE, JR
Adjournment Sine Die
First Regular Session, 16th Congress
June 11, 2014
My esteemed colleagues:
when the sixteenth congress opened a year ago, we were riding high on the momentum of the accomplishments of the 15th congress.
Public gratitude for our efforts towards achieving president pnoy’s vision of daang matuwid was evident in our record-high approval and trust ratings. The economy was growing at an unprecedented pace, and investor confidence had never been better.
Our economy’s remarkable transformation to a high-leaping tiger, undaunted by external pressures, had led us to achieve historic highs in international credit and competitiveness rankings, receiving credit rating upgrades from both moody’s and standard and poor’s.
And this evening, we end the first regular session of the 16th congress on a hopeful note.
Our committees hit the ground running from the first day of this congress to this hour to process and consolidate 1097 measures to produce 328 committee reports for plenary action. In 71 session days, we passed in plenary 5 republic acts, put onstream for presidential approval 10 national bills, approved 212 bills on third reading and adopted 107 resolutions. At this hour, 212 house initiated national bills await expeditious senate action.
True to our commitment never again to allow a re-enacted budget, we approved the 2014 national budget way ahead of time.
In the wake of the onslaught of natural calamities capped by the devastating typhoon yolanda, we approved with utmost dispatch a p14. 6 billion supplemental budget to fund critical relief and rehabilitation programs. We also channeled funds previously earmarked in the national budget for the pdaf to the calamity fund by extending the validity of the 2013 calamity and quick response funds as well as unreleased appropriations for operating and maintenance expenses and capital outlays.
Among the landmark legislation we enacted to strengthen the groundwork for inclusive growth is the marina reform and rationalization law to better enforce international conventions on standards of training for seafarers in the country.
Awaiting transmission and presidential approval are the bills extending the life of the philippine national railways to pave the way for its retooling and development as the backbone of our public transport system, strengthening consumer protection in the purchase of brand new vehicles or “the lemon law”, liberalizing the entry and scope of operations of foreign banks in the country, promoting the development of micro, small and medium enterprises otherwise known as the “go negosyo bill”, and the graphic or picture-based health warning law in tobacco products.
We made education a high priority of the chamber. Aware of the importance of education as a driver of growth, we approved on third reading 34 education bills the most notable of which are :
• the ladderized education interface act,
• the open distance learning in higher education act,
• the unified student financial assistance system for higher technical education act (unifast),
• the voluntary student loan program of private banks act,
• the open high school systems act, and
• the free college education in information and technology act.
We have likewise approved a bill that seeks to establish a special education center in all public school divisions in the country.
We also increased the prescriptive period from 15 to 30 years for violations of the anti graft and corrupt practices act to make it more difficult for public officials to evade public accountability.
To strengthen our agrarian, agriculture and fisheries sectors we approved the bills that:
• institutionalize credit support of the land bank of the philippines to agrarian reform beneficiaries, farmers and fisherfolk,
• promote soil and water conservation technologies for sustainable land management, and
• strengthen the regulatory functions of the bureau of fisheries.
The landmark initiative of instituting a national land use and management policy act was also approved on third reading to ensure judicious harnesssing and development of our land resources.
In the arena of safeguarding our people’s health and welfare, among the most notable bills we approved on third reading are those which seek to:
• provide mandatory philhealth coverage for all senior citizens,
• institutionalize pre-hospital emergency medical care system,
• require healthcare facilities to provide a pricelist of their healthcare services including incidental expenses to be charged in the medical bills of patients.
In the sphere of disaster responsiveness, we have the free mobile disaster alerts act, awaiting the signature of the president, which mandates telecommunications service providers to send free mobile alerts in the event of natural and man-made disasters and calamities. I am also pleased to report that the bill modernizing the country’s weather bureau—the pag-asa—has already been passed on third reading. Among its key provisions is the increase in the pay scale and benefits of pag-asa personnel which, hopefully, would allow us to keep our veteran weather forecasters within philippine shores.
I can go on enumerating what we accomplished – but, let it suffice to state that the first regular session of the 16th congress bore witness to a house that is at work despite the difficult challenges we faced.
The work ethic we displayed gives us the impetus and confidence to look ahead to more fruitful deliberations and decisive action for the passage of more strategic legislation in the second regular session, and which i hope will include:
• the amendments to the economic provisions of the constitution,
• the bangsamoro law,
• a competition law that will ensure that our market is ready for the asean 2015 integration
• an anti-dynasty law that does not diminish the right to suffrage while effectively proscribing the stranglehold on political power by the few, and
• a freedom of information act — subject to such decision that is desireable –that facilitates judicious exercise of the right to be informed of the activities of government and its functionaries.
All these to ensure that the inroads and gains attained towards institutionalizing good governance and public accountability will endure even beyond the term of the present administration.
We cannot wish away nor remain silent on the unremitting assaults to the integrity of this house and of its members, often without basis, in the wake of the pdaf controversy. But this, our work in this first regular session, must and should speak eloquently for us as public servants, and as representatives of our constituencies to the best that we can do.
Our performance as legislators proves our fidelity to our people’s trust. We have two years remaining in this 16th congress to continue to make our performance speak for us and for this house.
In this spirit, let us move forward to the next regular session strengthened by our renewed resolve to make legislation an authentic instrument of service to the welfare of the nation and our people.
The leadership of both houses of congress has been actively involved in a strong and synergetic partnership these past months, and we have likewise pledged to continue our work in prioritizing and shepherding legislative measures to ensure that the performance of this 16th congress surpasses that of any preceding it. No scandal or controversy should keep us from performing our functions and duties as duly elected representatives of our constituencies.
On this note, may i thank the deputy speakers for their hard work in the shepherding of priority legislation both in the committees and in plenary.
I also extend my heartfelt gratitude and commendation to the majority leader and his deputies for their able management of plenary proceedings and facilitating expeditious action on priority bills.
To our committee chairpersons and officers, we similarly convey to all of you our gratitude for their unrelenting industry in winnowing legislative proposals and hammering them into responsive pieces of legislation.
We must also thank our esteemed minority leader and his deputies for having ensured the critical collaboration of the minority in the passage of priority legislative measures.
To all of you, my colleagues, from the bottom of my heart, i can only extend my sincerest gratitude for your unstinting hard work and unremitting cooperation.
As we celebrate our nation’s independence day tomorrow, let us not forget that as our ancestors have fought with blood, sweat, and tears for the filipinos to govern themselves, so too must we fight with honesty, integrity, and solidarity so that the filipino people may continue to enjoy the sovereignty that we all rightfully deserve.
Maraming maraming salamat po! Really from the bottom of my heart, we are one house, one congress, magsama-sama tayong lahat!
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