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By Prince Golez, Manila Reporter
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Wednesday, March 22, 2017
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MANILA – Iloilo City’s Sen. Franklin Drilon believes the minority bloc is the “most productive” group in the upper house.
“I am proud of our performance… We did the lion’s share of the word in passing landmark legislation and bills of national significance,” Drilon on Monday said.
Of the 10 measures passed by the Senate before it adjourned for the Lenten break, seven of these were sponsored and authored by minority bloc members, he said.
These bills were the Affordable Higher Education for All Act, Free Internet Access in Public Places Act, Expanded Maternity Leave Law, Mental Health Act, Philippine Food Technology Act, Speech Language Pathology Act, and the Adjustment to the Present Peso Value of the Amounts in the 87-year old Revised Penal Code.
“The minority bloc has been working hard all this time. The records will bear this out – five of the seven bills approved on third reading and two of the three Senate bills passed on second reading were sponsored and authored by members of the minority,” he said.
Those who conduct and join committee hearing and defend the measures on the floor, according to him, are the ones who do the most work to get the bill passed.
“Our being vocal against some policies of the government should not be mistaken as obstructionism or as part of an imagined destabilization. While we may criticize or oppose, the minority bloc has shown that it has also been supportive of legislative proposals that would benefit our country and our people,” Drilon said.
The Ilonggo lawmaker also encouraged those who continue to criticize them to “just work as hard as we in the minority bloc do.”
Aside from Drilon, members of the minority bloc in the Senate include senators Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, Leila de Lima, Risa Hontiveros, Francis Pangilinan, and Antonio Trillanes IV./PN
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