House Deputy Speaker Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte Jr. urged the Senate on Sunday to urgently pass three measures approved by the House of Representatives that would help Filipinos adapt to the “better normal” amid the increasing COVID-19 cases in the country.
He asked the senators to prioritize the approval of their counterpart measures to House Bill (HB) No. 6864, or the proposed “Better Normal for the Workplace, Communities, and Public Spaces Act of 2020,” HB 1248 or the E-Government bill, and House Bill No. 1297 or the proposed “Bangko sa Baryo Act.”
He said to counter the threats of coronavirus disease, they acted on the three measures before the Congress adjourned sine die last June 5 to let Filipinos live their lives safely, recognizing a vaccine is not expected to be developed yet for commercial production and sale.
Villafuerte said the House approved on second reading HB No. 6864, which provides for new norms of social or physical distancing and safety measures in government and private offices, schools, commercial establishments and other public spaces.
He said the once both houses of Congress approves the bill, the bill “will help President Duterte realize his goal of financial inclusion and improve the speed and efficiency of delivering social mitigation interventions, such as cash grants, to those who need them the most in times of crisis and calamities.”
Villafuerte noted that HB 1248 has hurdled the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology (ICT). HB 1248 seeks to interlink electronic or contactless services and processes in all government agencies and corporations “to ensure that the Philippines gets ahead of the curve in the new norm of continued social distancing and digital transactions.”
According to him, the E-government measure will “further improve the ease of doing business while encouraging people to keep practicing physical distancing in the better normal by letting them transact official business without actually having to go to the various government agencies themselves.”
(Melvin Barayoga)