House Speaker Martin Romualdez | PHOTO: Official facebook page of the House of Representatives of the Philippines
MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives leadership has assured President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that the three remaining priority bills identified by the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) will be approved before the 19th Congress exits in 2025.
After the Ledac meeting at Malacañang on Tuesday, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said most of the 25 Ledac bills have been either approved or are in their final stages of completion — which indicates that the House has done most of its job already.
“Most of the bills are already in their final stages and approved by the House of Representatives. We are committed to approving the remaining three of the twenty-eight measures named during our Ledac meeting with President Bongbong Marcos, Senate President Chiz Escudero, and other officials,” Romualdez said.
“These legislative measures are crucial to the country’s development agenda,” he added.
According to Romualdez’ office, the three Ledac bills pending before the House are the following:
- Proposed amendments to the Foreign Investors’ Long-Term Lease Act (no bill has been filed)
- Proposed amendments to the Agrarian Reform Law (for committee deliberations)
- Proposed amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) (under technical working group/ committee deliberations)
Romualdez said there were five bills added to the Ledac list, which means the Marcos administration now has 64 priority legislations.
READ: Ledac lists 28 priority bills for passage by June 2025
Two of the five new bills were not yet approved by the House on third reading — the proposed amendments to the Foreign Investors’ Long-Term Lease Act, and the proposed amendments to the Agrarian Reform Law.
However, the three other new bills — the proposed Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act, proposed reforms to the Philippine Capital Markets, and the proposed amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law — have all been passed on final reading by the House.
The remaining 23 bills that still do not have final versions were already approved by the House on third reading, except for the Epira amendments:
- Amendments to the EPIRA (under technical working group/ committee deliberations)
- Amendments to the Right of Way Act
- Excise Tax on Single-Use of Plastics
- Rationalization of the Mining Fiscal Regime
- Department of Water Resources
- CREATE MORE Act
- Blue Economy Act
- Enterprise-Based Education and Training Framework Act
- Amendments to the Universal Health Care Act
- Open Access in Data Transmission Act
- Waste to Energy Bill
- Instituting a National Citizens Service Training (NCST) Program
- United System of Separation, Retirement and Pension of Military and Uniformed Personnel
- E-Government Act/E-Governance Act
- Philippine Immigration Act
- Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act (ratified bicameral conference committee report)
- Amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act (ratified bicameral conference committee report)
- Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act
- Self-Reliant Defense Posture Revitalization Act
- Philippine Maritime Zone Act
- Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program Act
- VAT on Digital Services
- New Government Auditing Code
READ: Romualdez: House approves all Ledac-priority bills before June target
Romualdez said that during the meeting, Marcos underscored the need to approve these bills as these would ensure national progress and address problems faced by the country.
“The President has emphasized the importance of passing these measures to advance the policies of the Marcos administration for the country’s continued economic recovery, progress, and stability of our nation,” he said.
“The House of the People has done its homework. Our accomplishments reflect our proactive stance in catering to the needs of the people by passing these much-needed legislation attuned to the Philippine Development Plan and the 8-point socio-economic agenda under the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework of the President,” he added.
Meanwhile, Romualdez said he is confident that both chambers of Congress can work better with the Senate under the leadership of Senate President Francis Escudero.
“We are dedicated to working together and diligently to achieve our shared goals of passing these measures before the end of the 19th Congress,” he noted.