We beg to disagree with Mr. Bobit S. Avila in his March 28, 2008, column, titled, Senators’ top performance: for drama series?”
In lamenting the many hours lost in congressional investigations, Mr. Avila wrote, “But for good governance’s sake, good governance from our legislators should mean more laws passed to help this very politically disturbed nation of ours.”
However, we hope that Mr. Avila should not generalize among the senators. There are senators who are able to pay close attention to their main legislative duties, even while participating in congressional investigations.
One of them is Senator Loren Legarda. As of this writing, she has 87 bills on various issues pending in the Senate. These bills deal with urgent matters affecting all components of our population, including the elderly, women, children, workers, farmers, teachers, employees and other professionals. For instance one bill seeks to exempt senior citizens from paying the real property tax.
Twenty-two bills she had authored and co-authored were enacted into law just in 2007. Among the more important are the Magna Carta for Household Helpers, Health Maintenance Organization, An Act Authorizing Farmer Organizations to Undertake Rice Importations, An Act Allowing the Titling of Lands Covered by a Certificate of Land Ownership Award, Women and Children Survivors Assistance and Protection Act, Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers, Breast Cancer Detection Act, National Land Use of the Philippines Act and An Act Promoting and Enhancing the Development, Utilization and Commercialization of Renewable Energy.
Filipinos have consistently recognized this as proven in the latest Pulse Asia survey where she topped the senators in performance rating (79 percent) and trust rating (76 percent).
Thank you for publishing this comment. — Yvonne Geston-Castro, Chief Administration and Finance Officer, Office of Senator Loren Legarda