MANILA — House Speaker Martin Romualdez on Tuesday said Congress would pass all of the priority bills mentioned by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) a day before.

Marcos had laid out 12 priority bills he wanted Congress to pass, including key tax programs under the Medium-Term Fiscal Framework that include excise tax on single-use plastics, value-added tax (VAT) on digital services, and the rationalization of mining fiscal regime.

• #SONA2023: Marcos Jr calls on Congress to pass 12 priority bills

Romualdez said he was "extremely confident" that both houses of Congress would pass the measures, which he described as necessary "to sustain our economic recovery and improve the living condition of our people."

Of the bills mentioned by Marcos in his second SONA, 7 had been approved by the House of Representatives on third and final reading.

These include bills on imposing taxes on single-use plastics, VAT on digital transactions, modernizing the Bureau of Immigration, and easing tax payments, among others.

Ten other bills are up for approval later this year. These include measures on anti-agricultural smuggling, pensions for military and uniformed personnel (MUP), a revised procurement law, the proposed National Water Act, the blue economy push, and amendments to the cooperative code.

Also among the priority measures that Congress intends to pass is the 2024 national budget, which the President is constitutionally required to submit to the legislature within 30 days after delivering the SONA.

“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.

For his part, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Joey Salceda said many of the priority measures had been approved by his panel.

But for the progressive Makabayan bloc, the bills Marcos deemed as priority were "not what the country needs."

House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro lamented how Marcos seemed to have overlooked bills to raise the wages of laborers and government workers.

Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas said measures to further ease inflation were not identified as priority.

"Mababa 'yong inflation pero 'yong bilihin di naman mababa eh," Brosas said.

(Inflation has eased, but the prices of goods have yet to go down.)

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