Bills creating the Virology Institute of the Philippines (VIP) in addition to the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) are among the many Senate’s high legislative agenda in 2023, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva mentioned Monday.
“In 2023, we foresee the Senate taking up the priority measures of the administration such as the establishment of the Virology Institute, Medical Reserve Corps, and the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control,” Villanueva mentioned in a textual content message to reporters.
“The move for the condonation of agrarian reform payments, as well as the House bill on the Maharlika Investment Fund are also on top of the legislative agenda,” he added.
The payments establishing the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the VIP are a part of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s legislative priorities.
But in a privilege speech in early December, Senator Pia Cayetano requested the route of the administration within the creation of the CDC and the VIP, as she offered earlier than her colleagues the positions of the useful resource individuals throughout the listening to on the payments creating the mentioned company.
During the listening to in November that Cayetano presided over, a Department of Health official mentioned the prevailing Research Institute for Tropical Medicine can be absorbed into the brand new authorities company if the invoice creating the CDC is enacted into regulation.
Cayetano raised in her privilege speech the likelihood to simply amend the mandate of the RITM relatively than creating new companies, contemplating the rightsizing coverage and the funding functionality of the federal government.
Meanwhile, the Senate has but to sort out any measure for the creation of the MIF, as there isn’t a counterpart invoice that was filed by senators. The House of Representatives’ model, then again, has but to be transmitted to the Senate.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri earlier mentioned the Senate may begin the deliberations on the MIF invoice by the center of February subsequent yr.
He additionally mentioned the Senate will await for the House of Representatives’ model of the measure.
The House of Representatives handed the MIF invoice on third and last studying final December 15.
Aside from the administration’s precedence payments, Villanueva mentioned he may also push for the invoice institutionalizing the National Employment Recovery Strategy.
“As chair of the subcommittee on Senate Bill No. 129 or the Trabaho Para sa Lahat ng Pilipino Bill, we are also prioritizing the institutionalization of the National Employment Recovery Strategy, which is something the President himself also sees as an urgent measure to be passed during our LEDAC meeting,” he mentioned.
Both Houses of Congress are at the moment on break for the vacations. Sessions will resume on January 23, 2023. —KBK, GMA Integrated News
