MANILA, Philippines -- To discourage absenteeism and tardiness among congressmen, the House of Representatives is considering live television coverage of its plenary proceedings, Speaker Prospero Nograles said Monday.

“A live television coverage, which will not only provide the public a blow-by-blow account on the plenary proceedings but at the same time discourage absenteeism and tardiness among congressmen, is being considered,” Nograles said in a statement on Monday.

"We want the House of the Representatives to become the House of the People. We want to give the public a better understanding on what's going on in the House of Representatives," he said.

Nograles said they would also try to make the House accessible to the public by organizing a weekly public tour for students, local government officials, barangay (village) officials, and even local and foreign tourists.

A brochure explaining how the legislative mill works and a map of the Batasan complex will be also provided to visitors, he said.

The House is also building its own website that will contain details of the lawmakers’ countrywide development fund (CDF), also known as “pork barrel” and provide a tracking mechanism on the status of their CDF-funded projects.

"The CDF or 'pork barrel' to some is highly misunderstood. Only a few people know that this has been providing scholarships, building classrooms, post-harvest facilities, bridges, highways, irrigation facilities, hospitals, barangay nursery schools, botika ng barangay in most parts of the country particularly in the countryside,” Nograles said.

“That is the message that we want to convey in building this website. It will also allow the public to scrutinize the performance of their representatives in the House,” he pointed out.

Nograles said the schedules of committee hearings for bills would also be published in nationally-circulated dailies to allow more public participation in deliberations and ensure high-quality legislation.

Nograles confirmed that he had created a four-man "management team" to implement various image-building projects for the House and “increase public awareness of what the House of Representatives is really all about.”

The four-man team is composed of Nograles’ media relations handler, Virgilio Bugaoisan; Reggie Velasco, a long-time PR practitioner and Secretary-General of Kampi; Ed Malay, also a long-time PR practitioner and spokesman of former president Fidel V. Ramos and Bong Serrano, a PR practitioner and a political officer of Lakas-CMD.

“With them working for my team, I am confident that we will achieve a great degree of success in our image-building campaign for the House of Representatives,” Nograles said.

“I should expect positive results in my first 100 days as Speaker," he added.