MANILA, Philippines – Senatorial hopeful Martin Romualdez has been acknowledged for initiating House Bill 1039, which is now known as Republic Act No. 10754, a law that exempts persons with disabilities (PWDs) from paying 12% value-added tax on certain goods and services. However, most people do not know that Romualdez authored numerous bills that represent a host of other advocacies: health, livelihood, welfare, education, and disaster response. He has also lent support to key bills authored by his colleagues in the House of Representatives.
For healthcare, Romualdez authored a bill to establish a Philippine National Cancer Center. Much like other countries, many Filipinos die of cancer each year. It is the third leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the Philippines. Romualdez sees the severity of this sickness and realizes the growing need to give special attention to cancer patients and their proper treatment.
Three-term Leyte solon and Senatorial aspirant Martin Romualdez at work.
The Leyte solon has also authored two bills that pave the way for livelihood opportunities for common citizens. One is the promotion of the establishment of micro-business enterprises (MBEs) and the provision of incentives and benefits for said businesses of such scale. He also pushes to create and accredit micro-enterprise development institutions. This gives more opportunities for small-scale business and more employment opportunities for the jobless.
Aside from the PWD “Malasakit” Bill, Romualdez also wrote an act to create the National Environmental Authority as well as establish its responsibilities and functions. He has also supported amendments of laws meant to benefit single parents and neglected or abandoned children with special needs. Moreover, Romualdez is a staunch education advocate, as seen in his push for the expansion and reform of the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, otherwise known as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (or 4Ps) to specifically benefit less fortunate students. Aside from that, Romualdez also supports a measure to mandate private colleges and universities to set aside at least twenty percent (20%) of their tertiary-level student population for scholarships to beneficiaries from poor public high schools as well as dependents of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.
Lastly, Romualdez has authored several bills for disaster response for his district, on account of the devastation brought about by Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda) that hit Leyte in November 2013. On the national scale, meanwhile, he is fighting for the provision of tax incentives for the relief and rehabilitation of devastated communities.
The three-term Congressman from the 1st District of Leyte has a lot of more plans for the country aside from these existing bills. For instance, he continues to champion the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). He aims, for starters, to push for higher appropriation in the national budget to be allocated for them, commensurate to their contribution in terms of remittances. In addition, he vows to fight for lower remittance rates as well as to create an OFW hospital. After all, OFWs have been playing a big part in the country’s economy; their remittances—which hit nearly P27 billion last year—account for 8.5 of the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP). Given their immense contribution to the economic development of the Philippines over the years, Romualdez only sees it fit to show them more “malasakit” in his legislative efforts at the very least.
Furthermore, Romualdez himself has sponsored scholarships and extended financial aid to nearly 40,000 students, as well as granted healthcare aid to almost 700,000 beneficiaries. He also advocates for more national resources to be extended beyond the capital, and also believes that developing rural areas and provinces will eventually attract more investors and create more job opportunities. He has championed quite a number of small businesses in his district as well. Truly, his “malasakit” goes beyond the PWD Law.