Senate on track to OK Ledac priority bills by June – Zubiri

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. shares a light moment with Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez and Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri after the 4th Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting in Malacañang Palace Tuesday morning.

MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Tuesday said that the Senate is still on track to pass all the priority bills of the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) by June. 

According to a Palace statement, Zubiri made the pledge to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. himself.

Zubiri, Marcos, House Speaker Martin Romualdez and the country’s economic chiefs met in a Ledac meeting in Malacañan Tuesday morning. 

“Mayroon pa kaming, of course, utang dahil hindi pa namin natatapos. But we committed to the President all 23 measures, hopefully, will be done by June before the Senate break or sine die break. So ‘yan ang commitment namin sa House of Representatives together with the President. But we’re on track to pass all of these by June,” said Zubiri. 

(We committed to the President all 23 measures, which hopefully will be done by June before the Senate break or sine die break. So that is our commitment to the House of Representatives together with the President. We’re on track to pass all of these by June.) 

A total of 15 measures will be completed before the Senate Sine die adjournment and another eight will be done by June, said Zubiri. 

According to Zubiri, however, many laws are already on the Bicameral Conference Committee Meetings level, while others only need Marcos’ signature. 

For the House of Representatives, all Ledac priority measures have been passed, according to Romualdez. 

In January, the Ledac determined that there were 15 priority bills to be passed before June, namely: 

1. Amendments to Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act/Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act
2. Self-Reliant Defense Posture Act
3. Philippine Maritime Zones Act
4. Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act
5. Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System
6. Negros Island Region Act
7. Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act
8. Value Added Tax on Digital Services
9. Amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act
10. Blue Economy Act
11. Waste-to-Energy Bill
12. Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and National Service Training Program
13. Unified System of Separation, Retirement, and Pension of Military and Uniformed Personnel
14. E-Government Act/E-Governance Act
15. Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning Program Act