Marcos leads LEDAC meeting to 'reprioritize' bills for livelihood improvement

President Ferdinand ''Bongbong'' Marcos Jr. on Tuesday led the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting. 

''We're reprioritizing bills aimed at improving livelihood, protecting the environment, and strengthening security,'' Marcos said.

He noted that 14 of his administration's 57 priority legislation have already been enacted 

The scheduled LEDAC meeting in January did not push through. 

Instead, Marcos had separate executive sessions with the leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives amid the apparent disagreement between the two chambers on the use of people's initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution.

During this LEDAC meeting, Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said all the LEDAC priority measures have been completed and transmitted to the Senate.

“At ‘yung dahilan kung bakit nauna po kami kaya kailangan tapusin naman natin talaga 'yung House bago i-akyat natin sa Senate. Kaya parati nating tinutukan ‘yung ating mga LEDAC priority measures para hindi madedelay ang deliberasyon sa Senate kaya parating–hindi naman sa minamadali pero ino- overtime talaga natin sa House,” Romualdez said.

(We needed to finish at the House before submitting it to the Senate. This is why we at the House always focus on the LEDAC priority measures so as not to delay the Senate deliberations.) 

Passage in June

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, for his part, made a commitment to the President that all priority legislative measures would be passed in June of this year.

''Magandang balita, marami dito sa request ng ating Pangulo, sa LEDAC nga na-approve na namin both Houses of Congress at nasa final stages na. Either pirma na lang ng Pangulo, or nasa Bicameral Conference Committee Meetings na lang, which is going to be a law very, very soon,” Zubiri said after the meeting. 

(Good news, many of the President's requests in the LEDAC have been approved in both Houses of Congress and now in the final stages. Either just the President's signature or in the Bicameral Conference Committee Meetings, which is going to be a law very, very soon.)

He said 15 of the measures would be completed before the Senate’s sine die adjournment and the remaining eight will be passed by June.

Among the 15 priority measures for passage by the end of June include the Amendments to Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act/Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, Self-Reliant Defense Posture Act, Philippine Maritime Zones Act, Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act, Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System (PENCAS), and the Negros Island Region Act.

Also on the list include the Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act, Value Added Tax on Digital Services, Amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act, Blue Economy Act, Waste-to-Energy Bill, Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and National Service Training Program (NSTP), Unified System of Separation, Retirement, and Pension of Military and Uniformed Personnel, E-Government Act/E-Governance Act, and Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program Act.

Senator Joel Villanueva said the President is satisfied ''with how the Senate is thoroughly studying the measures being passed and that we are on the right track when it comes to the direction that the Marcos administration wants to achieve.''

Asked if the economic Cha-cha was mentioned during the LEDAC meeting, Villanueva said, ''No.''

The House of Representatives, which has over 350 members, is expected to approve RBH 7 on third and final reading this week since the House already approved the same on second reading last week.

RBH 7’s Senate counterpart, RBH 6, has yet to be even approved at the committee level.

He added that the President had recognized the importance of enhancing the Enterprise-Based Education and Training (EBET) program as a vehicle for addressing unemployment and job-skills mismatch.

''The EBET Bill will serve as a bigger framework —  encompassing even the Apprenticeship Program, to enhance skills development based on industry needs,'' the senator said.— Anna Felicia Bajo/KBK/RF/RSJ, GMA Integrated News