MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives under the leadership of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano has processed a total of 220 bills, including key tax reform measures pushed by President Duterte, a key official of the chamber revealed yesterday.
House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said at the top of the heap was the record-time approval of House Bill 4228, or the P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020, along with 18 other measures that were approved on third and final reading.
Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero of 1-Pacman party-list said upon Cayetano’s instruction, the House did its best to approve the budget early enough so that Congress would have sufficient time to pass it before the end of the year.
Since Cayetano took over on July 22, the chamber received a total of 5,566 measures and 70 committee reports – of which 5,121 are House bills and 445 are House resolutions.
“The House as an institution performed its tasks commendably and with distinction to deliver the legislative agenda of the President. We answered the challenges and demands of our duties and responsibilities,” Romualdez said.
This means an average of 11 bills daily during the 20 session days.
“This will usher us to a good start. Through the collective hard work and determination of House members under the leadership of the Speaker, we are always focused and committed to pass quality legislation at all times to make better the life of Filipinos,” he added.
Bills passed
Among the crucial measures the House passed, aside from HB 4228, were HBs 1026 (a measure imposing additional excise taxes on alcohol, tobacco and vape products) and HB 300 (amendment to the Foreign Investment Act of 1991).
HB 304 or the Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA) and HB 4157 or the Corporate Income Tax and Incentive Rationalization Act (CITIRA) were pushed by the economic managers of Duterte.
“We also immediately passed on third and final reading bills under the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program to help reach the A credit rating goal of the Duterte administration. We are a notch away from ‘A’ territory rating after a vote of confidence by Standard & Poor’s (S&P), upgrading the country’s credit rating from ‘BBB’ to ‘BBB+’ with a stable outlook because of the robust economic growth,” said Romualdez, a former bank executive.
He said the House also approved on second reading HB 4933, as amended, last Oct. 2, or the proposed law seeking to postpone the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections from May 11, 2020 to Dec. 5, 2022.