The Senate will focus on approving bills that will address the country’s needs and will make sure every measure it passes goes through stringent quality control, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said Monday.
Zubiri made the statement as the chamber opened its second regular session, hours before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is expected to deliver his second State of the Nation Address.
“In tackling bills, let us bear in mind that these are not the President’s request, but the people’s. Some of these may not be what we want, but they are what the country needs,” Zubiri said.
Priority measures
He called for the passage of the following measures:
-Bills creating the Center for Disease Control, Virology Institute of the Philippines, and the Medical Reserve Corps
-A stronger anti-agricultural smuggling bill
-Ease of Paying Taxes bill
-Waste-to-Energy bill
-Magna Carta for Seafarers bill
-National Employment Action Plan bill
-Across-the-Board Legislative Wage Hike bill
-E-Governance Act update
-Internet Transactions Act bill
-Defense modernization bill
Quality control
On top of these, Zubiri said the Senate would scrutinize the 2024 national budget bill.
He said the Senate would not be a rubber stamp and would improve the measures as it approves them, and purge bad provisions and replace them with good ones.
“Every measure bound for the President’s desk will pass through our quality control. Not a single bill will be enrolled unless it is fundable, and shovel- or rollout-ready,” he said.
“Every bill carries a price tag which should not be hidden, as they are either paid by the taxes we pay today, or left to our children to settle, whose future has been mortgaged,” he added.
Of the 24 senators, 23 joined the opening of the second regular session. Senator Pia Cayetano was absent as she was with the Philippine Women’s National Football Team at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia.
This is the first time that the Senate held a session after Marcos lifted the nationwide public health emergency in the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After the session, Senators are expected to head to the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City for the chief executive’s address to the nation.
