The House of Representatives has already approved on third and final reading seven of the 17 priority measures that President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. asked Congress to pass in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA), Speaker Martin G. Romualdez said Tuesday.
Romualdez, leader of 312-member House of Representatives, expressed confidence that the chamber would wrap up the final approval of the remaining 10 SONA priority measures before the year ends— four before the congressional recess in October and the other six in December.
“I am extremely confident that the House of Representatives would again rise up to the occasion and accept the challenge from our President: to pass the 17 priority measures needed to sustain our economic recovery and improve the living condition of our people,” Romualdez said.
The list of 17 SONA priority measures, he noted, does not include the proposed 2024 national budget which the Executive Department will submit to Congress sometime next month.
“Of course, the most important bill that we need to discuss and approve the soonest time possible is the 2024 general appropriations bill based on the National Expenditure Program prepared by the executive department,” Romualdez said.
Meanwhile, Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte said “higher spending on the President’s six priority concerns—infrastructure, food security, job generation, health care, education and social protection for the poor and other vulnerable sectors—will let the Chief Executive deliver on his goal to make sure no Filipino is left behind.
Villafuerte called on his fellow lawmakers in both the House and the Senate to support the passage this second regular session of the 19th Congress of the 17 measures that the President endorsed for urgent action in his second SONA, of which 10 are new ones that are not on the expanded list of 44 priority bills that the Chief Executive and the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) had drawn up.
This has brought the number of priority bills at the start of the Congress’ second regular session to 54.
Romualdez said the House of Representatives needs to work double time to meet their self-imposed deadline of approving the 2024 appropriations bill as well as the 17 SONA priority measures before the end of the year.
The seven SONA priority measures that were already approved by the House of Representatives on third and final reading are:
1. House Bill 4102 or Single-Use Plastic Bags Tax Act
2. HB 4122 or An Act Imposing Value-Added Tax on Digital Transactions
3. HB 6716 or An Act Mandating the Establishment of Fisherfolk
Resettlement Areas by the Department of Agriculture, Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and Local Government Units
4. HB 7393 or Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act
5. HB 7006 or Automatic Income Classification Act for Local Government Units
6. HB 8203 or Bureau of Immigration Modernization Act
7. HB 4125 or Ease of Paying Taxes Act
The four SONA priority measures for approval by October are:
1. Anti-Agricultural Smuggling
2. Amendments to the Cooperative Code
3. Tatak Pinoy
4. Blue Economy
The six remaining priority measures for approval by December are:
1. Motor Vehicle User’s Charge
2. Military and Uniformed Personnel (MUP) Pension
3. Revised Procurement Law
4. New Government Auditing Code
5. Rationalization of Mining Fiscal Regime
6. National Water Act.
Also on Tuesday, the House committee of ways and means approved the Motor Vehicle Road Users’ Tax proposal that is expected to raise more funds for public transport modernization, while reducing rates for vehicles for-hire and exempting motorcycles and tricycles from the charge.
The measure was identified as a priority measure during the SONA.
The panel’s chairman, Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, said the proposal will raise some P274.45 billion over the next five years. The approved proposal also earmarks 45 percent of incremental revenues to the PUV modernization program, and 5 percent for road crash prevention programs.
For-hire vehicles will get a 50 percent discount while motorcycles and tricycles will be exempt.
