MANILA, Philippines — Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez summarized on Wednesday the House of Representatives’ accomplishments for the 19th Congress — with over 9,700 bills and 1,500 resolutions filed — including 600 bills still pending in the Senate.
In his speech before the session adjourned, Romualdez noted that the 19th Congress alone had more session days than the 18th Congress during the same period.
“My esteemed colleagues, since the start of the 19th Congress, this chamber has filed 9,763 house bills; 1,576 resolutions; and one petition, or a total of 11,340 measures. Of these filed measures, 34 have been enacted into law, eight have been transmitted for presidential action, seven bicameral conference committee reports have been ratified, 11 local bills have been passed by the Senate without amendments, and we have concurred to the amendments made by the Senate on six other local bills of our colleagues,” Romualdez said.
“Further, 663 House Bills have been approved by the House of Representatives and are now awaiting action by our Senate counterparts. Of the 121 session days this 19th Congress — which is 64 percent higher than the number of session days in the same period during the 18th Congress — we have processed an average of 28 legislative measures per session day,” he added.
Romualdez said the House was able to pass all priority bills mentioned by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his second State of the Nation Address (Sona) last July 2023, and those under the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) list.
“During the second (Ledac) meeting in July 2023, 20 legislative measures were identified and set for legislative approval before the year ends. The House of Representatives has passed all the twenty measures as early as September 2023, or three months ahead of schedule. Of these twenty Ledac identified measures, four have been enacted into law,” he said.
“In his second State of the Nation address last July 2023, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. mentioned 17 priority measures needed to sustain our economic recovery and improve the living conditions of many of our countrymen. It is with great pride and honor to report to this august chamber that we passed all of these 17 Sona priority measures, seven months ahead of the president’s next State of the Nation Address in July 2024,” he added.
However, Romualdez noted that the most important bill passed by Congress was the P5.768 trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for 2024.
The session of the Congress adjourned on Dec. 13 and will resume on January 22, 2024.
Earlier, House committees were allowed to stage hearings during the break.
Aside from the achievements of the House, Romualdez also talked about the possibility of resuming charter change talks to open up restrictive economic restrictions in the Constitution.
“Next year, after our yuletide break, we will focus our attention on studying and reviewing proposals that deal with restrictions blocking the entry of foreign capital and investments in the Philippines. These include deliberation on all proposed measures related to constitutional change,” he told the House.
Romualdez issued his statements after he and Senior Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. expressed hope that charter change proposals would be considered in 2024.