Former Batangas governor and duly elected Representative Vilma Santos on Wednesday said she supports the passage of a bill that seeks to adopt the “no work, no pay” policy for the members of the 17th Congress.
“I don’t think I’m against it. Siguro tama lang ‘yun. Kung hindi ka magtatrabaho ba’t ka babayaran? Kapag tinrabaho mo, dapat kang bayaran. I don’t think major problema ‘yan. Sa tingin ko tama lang naman ‘yung pagsasabatas niyan (It’s what’s proper. If you don’t work, why will you get paid? If you work, you should be paid. I don’t think that’s a major problem. I think it’s right to make that into law),” the former actress said.
Santos led the neophyte solons during a mock session after a week-long executive course on legislation.
Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco filed House Bill 412, which would impose salary deductions to any member of the Congress who would not attend, participate and take part in the regular and special sessions of Congress.
READ: ‘No work, no pay’ policy in Congress pushed
Santos expressed support for the measure as a solution to the perennial problem of lawmakers’ absenteeism which resulted in a lack of quorum that delayed the passage of pertinent bills in Congress.
Santos made the statement as she also promised to attend sessions in Congress.
READ: Vilma Santos vows to be active as Batangas congresswoman
She said her constituents are not the sole benefactors of her service, but the entire country as well.
Meanwhile, Santos said the mock session helped her learn more about the legislative process, admitting that authoring a bill is a difficult task to do.
“Hindi lang constituents ang makikinabang kundi buong Pilipinas. So you have to be very careful at kung ano man yung bill na susuportahan mo, kailangan pag-aralan mong mabuti ‘yung mga proseso (Not only the constituents will profit, but the whole Philippines as well. So you have to be very careful and whatever bill you support, you need to study the process well),” Santos said. Kathryn Jedi Baylon, Inquirer.net trainee/JE