Marcos satisfied with Senate drive on priority bills – Villanueva

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is satisfied with how the Senate has been working on the passage of his administration’s priority bills, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva said in a message to reporters on Tuesday.

Villanueva made remark after the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) met on Tuesday to “extensively discuss” the Marcos administration’s priority measures.

“The president is satisfied with how the Senate is thoroughly studying the measures being passed and that we are on the right track when it comes to the direction that the Marcos administration wants to achieve,” Villanueva said.

Villanueva said he stressed during the meeting the importance of passing more bills to address prevailing challenges in the education sector.

“The president has recognized the importance of enhancing the Enterprise-Based Education and Training (EBET) program as a vehicle for addressing unemployment and job-skills mismatch.  The EBET Bill will serve as a bigger framework — encompassing even the Apprenticeship Program, to enhance skills development based on industry needs,” he said.

The LEDAC technical working group earlier named the “priority measures” for passage by June 2024. These include the following:

• Amendments to Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act / Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act
• Self-Reliant Defense Posture Act
• Philippine Maritime Zones Act
• Real Property Valuation and Assessment Reform Act
• Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System (PENCAS)
• Negros Island Region Act
• Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act
• Value Added Tax on Digital Services
• Amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act
• Blue Economy Act
• Waste-to-Energy Bill
• Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and National Service Training Program (NSTP)
• Unified System of Separation, Retirement, and Pension of Military and Uniformed Personnel
• E-Government Act/E-Governance Act
• Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program Act./li>

Other priority measures earlier identified by the council are:

• Open Access in Digital Transmission Act
•  Enterprise-based Education Programme (Apprenticeship Act)
• CREATE More<
• An Act Creating the Department of Water Management
• Amendments to the Universal Health Care Act