By Filane Mikee Cervantes – PNA
MANILA — The House of Representatives has sown the seeds of legislation that would leave an impactful legacy for President Rodrigo Duterte.
True to her word, Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo delivered on her promise to fulfill the legislative agenda of President Rodrigo Duterte in just a matter of five months.
With her at the helm of the chamber, Arroyo pushed the House to pass all of the 15 priority measures of Duterte as enumerated in his 2018 State of the Nation Address (SONA).
Arroyo said she was concerned primarily on supporting the President’s legacy rather than her own.
“My concern is not my legacy as Speaker. My concern is to support President Duterte’s legacy in the year that I have as Speaker. And as of yesterday, the House can report with confidence that we have already passed the President’s entire legislative agenda as he announced in his 2018 State of the Nation Address,” Arroyo said in her closing speech for the Christmas break on Wednesday.
Duterte’s legislative agenda fulfilled
The historic approval of the landmark Bangsamoro Organic Law is a major milestone toward lasting peace in Muslim Mindanao.
The lower chamber also passed the proposed revision of the Constitution, which brings Duterte’s promise of federalism a step closer to realization.
The House gave its nod to major tax reforms, such as the Trabaho bill or TRAIN 2, alcohol taxes, tobacco taxes, mining taxes, tax amnesty program, reform in property valuation, and reform in capital income, and financial taxes.
Other priority bills approved include the “endo” (end of contract) or the Security of Tenure Act, Utilization of the Coco Levy Act, National Land Use Act, Creation of the Department of Disaster Resilience, and Rice Tariffication.
Impeachment saga, speakership change, and budget dilemma
Apart from churning the legislative mill, the House was also involved in a series of explosive events that rocked the nation.
At the start of the year, the House committee on justice held several impeachment hearings against the now-ousted Supreme Court (SC) chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno for months on end.
The panel ruled that there were enough grounds to impeach Sereno and even crafted the articles of impeachment.
The impeachment proceedings against Sereno, however, were rendered “moot and academic” after she was removed from office through a quo warranto petition — or, on the basis of an invalid appointment.
In July, a major plot twist dramatically upstaged what was supposed to be the main event, the President’s third SONA.
The tug-of-war for speakership between Arroyo and Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez hugged the limelight and caused a more-than-one-hour delay to the President’s SONA.
Before the start of the third SONA, a live video feed of the proceedings at the plenary hall showed Arroyo climbing the Speaker’s rostrum, where she took her oath as the chamber’s new head.
It was still Alvarez who took the seat of the Speaker during the SONA. However, later in the evening, Arroyo was formally installed as Speaker with 184 lawmakers electing her to replace Alvarez.
The latter part of the year was defined by the budget season, but it was not as smooth-sailing as it was expected to be.
The proposed PHP3.757-trillion national budget for 2019 saw major delays with its new cash-based budgeting system, as well as alleged irregularities and insertions worth billions of pesos that were uncovered.
Way forward, pivoting from policy to action
With only a few months left before the 17th Congress draws its end, Arroyo said the House will now pivot to its oversight function to help the administration implement the laws and “harvest the results during the final three-and-a-half years of President Duterte’s term.”
“For the remaining months of the 17th Congress, I ask the House to be prepared to give the implementing departments and agencies the support that they may need to the extent that they make this pivot from policy to action, such as by way of House Resolutions from us the elected representatives of the people or through the helpful exercise of House oversight functions next year,” Arroyo said.
“We will expect the oversight committees to be very active in the next months or so,” she added.
