House adjourns 1st regular session; Romualdez lauds chamber for accomplishments

House Speaker Martin Romualdez delivers an address before Congress adjourned sine die on Wednesday, May 31, 2023. (Photo from a video posted on Facebook by the House of Representatives)

MANILA, Philippines — House Concurrent Resolution No. 12 which puts the House of Representatives of the 19th Congress on a sine die adjournment was approved on Wednesday, putting an end to its first regular session.

During the plenary session, Majority Leader and Zamboanga City 2nd District Rep. Manuel Jose Dalipe moved to adopt House Concurrent Resolution No. 12, that authorized House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to adjourn session within Wednesday.

The same resolution also tasked the deputy speakers to inform President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that the first regular session of the 19th Congress had ended.

But before the first regular session officially ended, Speaker Romualdez heaped praises on the chamber for working hard — filing over 9,600 measures and passing 33 of the 42 bills considered as priority legislation of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac).

“Needless to say, our first regular session has been both eventful and productive.  In total, this chamber filed 9,600 measures, consisting of 8,490 house bills, 1,109 resolutions and one petition.  A total of 577 of these measures have now been approved by the house of representatives,” he said.

“On the average, we were able to process thirty (30) legislative measures per session day, ten percent (10%) more than our output in the previous congress during the same period,” he noted.

“Let us continuously improve and optimize the conduct of our work for the benefit of the Filipino people. Again, congratulations to everyone for this impressive performance. You did not take your jobs lightly,” he said.

Among the accomplishments noted by Romualdez is the first-ever law signed by the President — the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Card Registration Act.

“Kayong lahat ang naging susi kaya mabilis nating naipasa ang lahat ng batas na kailangan ng bayan at nabigyan ng aksyon ang mga problema ng mamamayan.  In a bid to protect filipino consumers against text and online fraudulent scams, we have enacted Republic Act (RA) 11934, otherwise known as the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Registration Act,” he pointed out.

(You were all key as to why we were able to pass bills needed by the public swiftly, and why we were able to act on the people’s problems.)

“As the first law signed by the president, the ‘SIM Registration Act’ is a concrete manifestation of the government’s continued crackdown against cyber criminals,” he explained.

Romualdez also highlighted the approval of bills seeking the condonation of agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) existing loans, and the recent adoption of the Senate’s Maharlika Investment Fund proposal.

“Mindful of the financial woes of farmers, we have also approved on third reading, House Bill (HB) 6336, or the Agrarian Reform Debt Condonation Act of 2022, which aims to write off all unpaid amortization and interests of loans of [ARBs]. The bicameral report of this bill has now been ratified by both Houses of Congress,” he said.

“Just a while ago, we ratified the bicameral conference committee report relative to establishing specialty centers in hospitals under the direct supervision and control of the DOH,” he mentioned.

“Worthy to note is both houses have earlier agreed on a version of the Maharlika fund, the country’s first ever sovereign investment fund. This is designed to promote economic development by making strategic and profitable investments in key sectors including public road networks, tollways, green energy, water, agro-industrial ventures, and telecommunications,” he stressed.

Session is to resume on July 24, for the start of the second regular session.

President Marcos will also deliver his second State of the Nation Address during a joint session of Congress.

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