House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. /PHOTO: Gabriel Pabico Lalu, INQUIRER.net
As she arrived at the House of Representatives to preside over the session for the first time, former president and newly-elected Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said lawmakers need to pass the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) on Tuesday afternoon.
In an ambush interview, Arroyo reiterated her previous statement of attending to the administration’s policy direction.
“I’m very grateful to my colleagues for their trust and confidence in electing me speaker, I view my role as speaker with having a primary specific objective, that is to carry out the legislative agenda of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte,” Arroyo said.
According to the Pampanga representative, she seeks to pass the BOL within the day.
“For today, we must get the Bangsamoro Organic Law ratified,” she said.
She also said she wishes to work immediately to send aid to the victims flooding due to monsoon rains.
“Aside from carrying out the legislative agenda of the president, it is also a speaker’s job, I think, to help the congressmen to assist their constituents well especially the most needed… so we can attend to the calamities of the various districts that compose our congressmen,” she explained.
Arroyo replaced former speaker Pantaleon Alvarez after 184 members of the House voted for her, in a session convened after the State of the Nation Address on Monday. /vvp