Legarda Reports Legislative Accomplishments in 16th Congress

Senator Loren Legarda, a three-term senator who chairs the Senate Committees on Finance, Climate Change, and Cultural Communities has authored and sponsored 22 laws in the 16^thCongress, covering the period between 2013 and 2016.

Legarda filed 146 bills as author and 64 bills as co-author. Twenty-two (22) of these bills are now laws. She authored 70 resolutions and co-authored 40 others. She also sponsored Senate concurrence in the ratification of two international treaties.

She is the principal author of the PAGASA Modernization Act; the Microfinance NGOs Act; the Unified Student Financial Assistance System For Tertiary Education (UniFAST) Act; and the law that creates the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

The PAGASA Modernization Act mandates the upgrade of physical resources and operational techniques through the acquisition of state-of-the-art instruments, equipment and facilities to improve capabilities in providing timely and reliable forecasting across the country.

The UniFAST Law expands and rationalizes the government’s scholarship program to ensure that Filipino students, especially those belonging to indigent families, are fully supported throughout their studies.

The Microfinance NGOs Act creates micro-enterprise development institutions to expand, enhance and promote the access of the poor to microfinance services such as credit, insurance and savings, enabling them to operate their own productive economic opportunities.

Meanwhile, the DICT will assume the information and communications-related powers and functions of the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC). It will promote, develop and regulate the ICT sector in order to help transform the same into a powerful tool in creating jobs, enhancing government efficiency, and improving the economy.

As chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, Legarda principally sponsored the 2016 General Appropriations Act (GAA). She introduced special provisions to make the national budget for fiscal year 2016 socially-inclusive, gender-sensitive, climate-adaptive, attuned towards reducing disaster risks, and one that mainstreams culture and heritage in every department, and sensitive and responsive to the needs of the vulnerable sectors of society.

Legarda also sponsored the Senate’s concurrence in the ratification of the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, which established the second commitment period of developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions; and the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which aims to settle issues of parental child abduction by providing a system of cooperation among countries in case one parent brings the child out of his/her habitual residence without the consent of the other parent.

The complete list of the laws authored, co-authored, sponsored or co-sponsored by Legarda in the 16^th Congress (2013-2016) is as follows:

·      RA 10717 – General Appropriations Act of 2016

·      RA 10692 – PAGASA Modernization Act

·      RA 10693 – Microfinance NGOs Act

·      RA 10687 – Unified Student Financial Assistance System For Tertiary Education (UNIFAST) Act

·      RA 10844 – Department of Information and Communications Technology

·      RA 10771 – Green Jobs Act

·      RA 10821 – Children’s Emergency Relief and Protection Act

·      RA 10659 – Sugarcane Industry Development Act

·      RA 10676 – Student-Athletes Protection Act

·      RA 10747 – Rare Diseases Act of the Philippines

·      RA 10645 – Expanded Senior Citizens Act

·      RA 10635 – Maritime Industry Authority

·      RA 10752 – Right of Way for National Government Infrastructure Projects Act

·      RA 10801 – Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Act

·      RA 10744 – Credit Surety Fund Cooperative Act of 2015

·      RA 10754 – An Act Expanding the Benefits and Privileges of Persons with Disability

·      RA 10654 – An Act Amending the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998

·      RA 10691 – Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Act

·      RA 10688 – Metallurgical Engineering Act

·      RA 10644 – Go Negosyo Act

·      RA 10866 – Batanes Responsible Tourism Act

·      RA 10867 – NBI Reorganization and Modernization Act