House works to trim down list of priority bills to 20

MANILA, Philippines—The House of Representatives is working on trimming down to 20 its list of priority bills it intends to pass on its first year, including the proposed measures on reproductive health, Marcos victims compensation, and Freedom of Information.

Charter change is being discussed, according to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., but he said he was not certain if it could hurdle the debates within the year.

Emerging from a meeting of the House leaders Tuesday, Belmonte said the priority measures would be brought before the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting expected to be convened by the President end of this month.

“We’re trying to tear down or at least introduce to the LEDAC a reduced number which we would push for and most of which are anyway not contrary to what’s being pushed for in the Palace and the Senate, so we’ll end up with 20 maybe until the end of the year,” Belmonte said in a news conference.

Belmonte said that the 20 bills were culled from the 132 measures earlier identified by the House leaders, who categorized the bills and resolutions filed into six clusters.

At least 3,500 bills and resolutions have been filed since the start of the 15th Congress in July last year.

Aside from the human rights victims compensation bill, reproductive health bill and the freedom of information bill, Belmonte said they will also prioritize the passage of revenue-enhancing measures such as the fiscal responsibility bill.

But he assured that there will be no new taxes coming from Congress. –Lira Dalangin-Fernandez, INQUIRER.net