Alvarez: Record-low rating ‘a challenge for us to do our work’

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez (Photo by NOY MORCOSO / INQUIRER.net )

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez views his record-low net satisfaction rating as a challenge, saying many Filipinos have yet to feel the impact of new laws enacted by Congress.

Social Weather Stations’ (SWS) first quarter survey results showed that Alvarez had a “neutral” net satisfaction rating of +1. This is a 13-point decline from his +14 net satisfaction rating last December 2017.

The survey was conducted last March 23 to 27.

READ: Sereno, Alvarez get record-low ratings

While he agrees that the SWS survey results “are a barometer of the public’s pulse for a certain period,” he said it also serves as “a challenge for us to do our work.”

“I believe that the 17th Congress has done its job in passing laws that respond to the needs of our people in various fields of endeavor,” he added.

However, he said the recent SWS survey result shows many Filipinos “have yet to feel the impact of these new laws.”

“Hence, there is a need to cultivate further a more free-flowing exchange of communications to be able to reach out to a greater number of people throughout the country — to make them more aware of the reforms undertaken so far aimed at achieving sustained economic growth, political stability and social progress under the Duterte administration,” he added.

In March, Deputy Speaker Raneo Abu said the lower Chamber has processed a total of 2,673 measures or an average of 15 measures per session day since the 17th Congress opened on July 25, 2016.

Abu said since the House began its sessions for 2018  last January 15, the chamber approved on third and final reading a total of 25 bills which include several measures of national importance.

Among the approved measures were House Bill No. 690, seeking to strengthen the security of tenure of workers; HB 6689, seeking to grant full insurance coverage to all qualified Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program beneficiaries; and HB 6834, seeking to strengthen the right of people to free expression and to peaceably assemble, among others.

Before Congress adjourned last March 23, the lower House also approved on third and final reading some controversial bills.

These are HB 7185, seeking to recognize Foreign Decree of Termination of Marriage; HB 7303, seeking to institute Absolute Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage; and HB 7378, seeking to reset the May 14, 2018 synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections to the second Monday of October 2018. /je