Speaker vows passage of Duterte legislative measures

MANILA, Philippines — House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco yesterday vowed the passage of legislative measures pushed by President Duterte before his term ends in 2022.

After meeting with Senate President Vicente Sotto III and other congressional leaders last Thursday, Velasco said Congress will pass the priority bills of the administration within the next two years.

“The President, in his remaining years as our Chief Executive, can rely on Congress to help him fulfill his promises to our people before his term ends,” Velasco stressed.

“We take seriously his call to put an end to systemic corruption, and we will work together with our fellow lawmakers to come up with legislation to help our overseas Filipino workers, farmers and fisherfolk,” he revealed.

Velasco bared that House and Senate leaders agreed to come up with common legislative priority targets for the next five months in accordance with the agenda set out by the President in his State of the Nation Address last July.

“We consider the senators as vital partners, allies and friends, and we thank the Senate leadership for this productive meeting,” he said.

Included in the President’s legislative agenda are the proposed Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises or CREATE Act, Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer or FIST Act, Rural Agricultural and Fisheries Development Financing System Act and the bill creating the Department of Overseas Filipinos.

Velasco said the House also requested the Senate to prioritize the proposed Magna Carta of Barangay Workers to support barangay frontliners, as well as the proposed Internet Transactions Act that seeks to protect consumers, especially with the increase in online transactions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We look forward to a very good working relationship between the House and the Senate as both chambers strive to ensure the remaining sessions of the 18th Congress will be fruitful and productive,” Velasco said.

“We have a good working relationship with the Senate, and everyone is united. We are confident that we can pass responsive laws that will help our countrymen rise above this pandemic before the year ends,” he explained.

Velasco issued the statement after he and Sotto led an informal caucus of House and Senate leaders at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong City.

The meeting, which was initiated by the Speaker, was also attended by Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Senate finance committee chair Sonny Angara, House Majority Leader Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, House appropriations committee chair Eric Yap and House Minority Leader Joseph Stephen Paduano.

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Minority Leader Franklin Drilon also joined the meeting via videoconferencing app Webex.