House posts 88% record attendance

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives has posted record attendance in the first 39 session days of the 17th Congress.

Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas told his colleagues on Wednesday night before the legislature went on its first recess since convening last July 25 that quorum averaged 257 members a day for the entire 39-day period.

“That’s 88-percent attendance, which is a record for the House in the post-martial law Congress,” he said.

“We had enough members present every single day that we called the roll, including eight days when we had sessions in the morning,” he said.

Fariñas said he hoped he and his colleagues would sustain such laudable showing.

The House in previous Congresses had frequently been plagued by absenteeism.

In terms of legislative measures, Fariñas noted that the chamber approved the proposed P3.35-trillion 2017 national budget early despite the fact that President Duterte submitted it a month after his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 25.

During the previous administration, former president Benigno Aquino lll presented his budget proposal a day after his SONA. That gave the House and the Senate enough time to approve the outlay before yearend to avoid the reenactment of the previous year’s spending law.

The House passed the 2017 budget on third and final reading on Wednesday night, shortly before its Halloween recess.

Like the Aquino administration, Fariñas said the present leadership, including that of Congress, wants to ensure that next year’s spending program is in place at the start of the coming year.

Aside from the budget, he said the House has passed several measures out of the more than 4,000 bills filed by members.

It also approved the report of the committee on justice on its four-day inquiry into the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison, he said.

Opposition Rep. Edcel Lagman criticized the majority for “railroading” the approval of the report.

“On behalf of Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, who is on official travel with the President in China, I thank all of our members for our chamber’s record showing,” Fariñas told his colleagues.