100 new high schools await Palace greenlight

House Speaker Prospero Nograles reported that 100 local bills proposing 100 new national high schools nationwide are only waiting for the President’s signature, saying “this is a constitutional mandate we will never deviate from.”

The Speaker said the 14th Congress, during its first regular session, approved and transmitted to the Office of the President some 114 local bills, 100 of which seek the establishment of new national high schools all over the country.

In a report by Majority Leader Arthur Defensor and Rep. Del de Guzman, chairman of the House Com­­mittee on Basic Education, through House secretary general Marilyn Barua-Yap, the proposed schools are to be located in Surigao del Sur, Zamboanga del Sur, Davao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Leyte, Sorso­gon, Camarines Sur, Oriental Min­doro, Negros Occidental, Bu­lacan, Nueva Vizcaya, La Union, Agusan del Sur, South Cotabato, Kalinga, Bohol, Mandauyong City, Ifugao, Zamboanga Siibugay, Nueva Ecija, Dinagat Islands, Misamis Occidental, Mountain Province, Ben­guet, Antique, Batangas, Tarlac, Davao City, Masbate, Lanao del Sur, City of Cagayan de Oro and Aurora.

The building of these new schools would be part of the infrastructure development for education which would also generate jobs during their construction and spur productivity among down stream industries supplying building materials and related enterprises, de Guzman said.

Nograles and Defensor noted that the committee chaired by Representative de Guzman is one among the most prolific committees during the first regular session in terms of number of bills acted upon and approved by both chambers of Congress.

Defensor said that apart from the 25 measures signed into law, there are some 10 bills of national interest that await the President’s signature.

Seven other bills, five national and two local, are pending in conference committees and expected to be ratified during the early weeks of the second regular session, which opens on April 13.

Statistics from the Bills and Index section of the Plenary Affairs Bureau show that as of March 9, 2009, the House was in receipt of some 6,090 bills filed, 3268 national and 2822 local, of which 6,067 have been referred for committee actions.

As of March 9, some 960 bills, 22 national and 838 local, are now pending action by the Senate. Some 33 measures, 18 national and 15 local, have been approved by the House on second reading.

During the same period, some 1,042 resolutions have been filed, 373 were adopted by the House and 669 referred for action by the various standing and especial committees. There were 25 concurrent resolutions, eight adopted by the House, three House resolutions adopted by the Senate and one adopted by both chambers. There were also 33 House Joint Resolutions filed.
— Frank Lloyd Tiongson, Manila Times