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By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada has
authored the most number of bills that have reached the Senate
plenary in the five-month-old 14th Congress.
Estrada is the author of 12 bills that were
consolidated into various committee reports. A committee report, the
product of public hearings on related bills, is filed in
substitution of these bills and is the one sponsored in plenary
session. Of the thousands of bills filed, only those included in
committee reports stand a chance of becoming a law.
Senate President Manuel Villar and Sen. Francis
Escudero both rank second to Estrada with nine bills each. Escudero
is also the Senate committee chairman with the most number of
committee reports filed, or nine of 30.
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon and Sen. Pia Cayetano are
third with seven bills each, and Sen. Loren Legarda fourth with six
bills. Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Mar Roxas 2nd, Edgardo Angara and
Richard Gordon share fifth place with five bills each.
The 12 bills of Estrada are consolidated with
other bills in the committee reports on the Anti-Torture Act, the
Socialized and Low-Cost Housing Loan Restructuring Program,
decriminalization of vagrancy, the expansion of the scholarship
grant to family members of police, fire, jail and military
personnel, fixing the term of the Armed Forces Chief of Staff, the
creation of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the University of
the Philippines Charter, the Environmental Education Act,
breastfeeding, kasambahay or house helpers, the Magna Carta of
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Act, and the presentation of
suspects in press conference.
The first five committee reports are still on
second reading, while the rest have been approved on third and final
reading and are now in the House.
A Senate President is not expected to be
productive in legislation because he has his hands full in managing
Senate affairs. Villar, however, has shown that he can do both at
the same time with nine bills in various committee reports to his
credit.
The bills of Villar are incorporated in the
committee reports on the UP Charter, the scholarship grant to family
members of uniformed personnel, the Environmental Education Act,
cell phone theft, quality affordable medicine, extension of the
Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, the Magna Carta of
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, the presentation of suspects in
press conference, and the Judiciary Retirement Act.
Escudero authored the bills that were among
those consolidated in the committee reports on the Anti-Torture Act,
earmarking of a percentage of value of forfeited pieces of property
derived from anticor-ruption cases for the Office of the Ombudsman,
decriminalization of vagrancy, UP Charter, breastfeeding, cell phone
theft, good conduct time allowance for prisoners, presentation of
suspects in press conference, and the Judiciary Retirement Act.
Some 1,987 bills have been filed in the Senate,
of which 103 have been consolidated in 30 committee reports.
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