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Nograles assures quorum on Monday

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/07/2009 1:55 PM

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MANILA - House Speaker Prospero Nograles on Saturday assured there will be a quorum in the House of Representatives as the lower chamber's leadership lined up priority measures to be tackled when Congress resumes session on Monday.

Nograles said House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor has assured him "the collective resolve of the House leadership and members of the majority coalition to remain faithful to their constitutional mandate will override the issue of quorum."

There have been reports that at least 20 congressmen, most of them members of the majority, will miss Monday's session because of the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas.

Nograles, who is in Washington for the World e-Parliament Forum, has confirmed that he will watch the fight, which will take place on Sunday (Saturday in the US). The House Speaker did not say if he would be back in the Philippines for the resumption of session.

He said the House's main priority is the passage on third and final reading of the proposed P1.541-trillion General Appropriations Act of 2010.

"We cannot afford a re-enacted budget. We need to be guided by a national recovery budget that is focused, among others, on education, health and human resource mobilization, information technology, infrastructure and investments development, industries and jobs promotion, and environment protection," Nograles said in a statement.

The immediate passage of the 2010 national budget is critical for the government’s rehabilitation projects in provinces devastated by storms that destroyed millions worth of infrastructure and crops in October.

House Appropriations chairman Junie Cua said the social services sector would get the biggest chunk of the proposed budget with P479.9 billion or almost one-third (31.1%) of the 2010 outlay.

Cua said P235 billion will go to education and manpower, including the Department of Education's share of P172.8 billion and the P101 billion for social security and welfare.

The House leadership has also assured the passage of the Magna Carta of the Poor contained in House Bill 6915 and the OECD Tax Compliance Amendment (Exchange of Tax Information Matters) under HB 6330.

The House leadership said other priority bills for second reading approval are:

- HB 3124 - Accelerating the implementation of retail competition and open access in the Electric Power Industry (amending the EPIRA Law)
- HB 3306 - Granting the Right of Reply
- HB 3756 - Compensation to Human Rights Victims
- HB 5043 - Providing for a National Policy of Reproductive Health
- HB 5077 - Further Strengthening the Anti-Money Laundering Law
- HB 6054 - Providing the Conduct of Elections on May 2010
- HB 5619 - Enhancing the use of English as medium of instruction
- HB 6266 - Instituting a self-sustaining Forest Management Program
- HB 6290 - Instituting reforms in Land Administration
- Cybercrime Act under HB 6794

Other measures on the priority list are

- House Concurrent Resolution No. 9 - Granting Amnesty to members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) and other Communist Rebel groups
- HB 6383 - Witness Protection, Security and Benefit Act
- HB 701 - Amending R.A. 8042, otherwise known as the "Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Workers Act of 1995"
- HB 6390 - Strengthening the grant of benefits and privileges to senior citizens
- HB 6776 - Stiffer penalties for crime relating to firearms and light weapons