APRIL 24, 2016

NR # 4180

Education, health, employment, and human resource

development bills for final passage
The House of Representatives is set to approve on final reading some 20 bills of
national scope, mostly focused on education, health, employment and human resource
development.
The remaining two weeks of the third and last regular session of the 16 th Congress,
which starts on May 23rd until adjournment sine die on June 11th, would surely be hectic
for the two chambers of the legislature.
The coming joint Congressional canvass of votes to determine the official winners
for the posts of president and vice president, and final legislative actions on pending
legislations, considering time constraint, would surely burn up the energies of the leaders
and members of both chambers of Congress.
Relative to the measures awaiting third reading vote, there are 17 national bills
pending in the various Conference Committees tasked to harmonize conflicting provisions
of the measures separately passed last year or January this year by both chambers.
Expected to be approved on final reading when session resumes in late May
include, among others, the following bills (passed on second reading in January 2016):
1) HB 5616 An Act regulating and modernizing the practice of Pharmacy in the
Philippines, repealing for the purpose R.A. No. 5821, otherwise known as the Pharmacy
Law.
2) HB 6414 An Act Strengthening further the special Program for Employment of
Students, amending for the purpose Sections 1, 2, 3 and 5, and repealing Section 4 of R.A.
9547, amending R.A. 7323, otherwise known as the Special Program for Employment of
Students (SPES).
3) HB 6410 An Act instituting the Magna Carta of Day Care Workers and
providing funds therefor;
4) HB 6415 An Act institutionalizing the nationwide implementation of the
Jobstart Philippines Program;
5) HB 6416 An Act providing assistance to new graduates by waiving government
fees and charges collected in connection with the issuance of documents required in their
application for employment;

6) HB 6418 An Act prohibiting discrimination against any individual in

employment on account of age, providing penalties therefor;
7) HB 6421 An Act Strengthening, modernizing and aligning the practice of
Agricultural Engineering in the country into the internationally recognized practice of
Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, and appropriating funds therefor, repealing for
the purpose R.A. 8559, otherwise known as the Philippine Agricultural engineering Act
of 1998;
8) HB 6422 An Act integrating palliative and Hospice care into the Philippine
Health Care System;
9) HB 6423 An Act strengthening the continuing Professional Education Program
and appropriating funds therefor;
10) HB 6424 An Act instituting policies for the protection and welfare of
Caregivers in the practice of their profession;
11) HB 6425 An Act instituting the Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers;
12) HB 6428 An Act declaring Filipino Sign Language as the National Sign
Language of the Filipino Deaf and the official Language of government in all transactions
involving the deaf, and mandating its use in all public schools, broadcast media, and
workplaces;
13) HB 6431 An Act rationalizing government intervention in labor disputes by
adopting the essential services criteria in the exercise of the assumption of jurisdiction on
certification power of the Secretary of Labor and Employment, and decriminalizing
violating thereof, amending for this purpose Articles 278, 279 and 287 of Presidential
Decree 442, as amended, otherwise known as the Labor Code of the Philippines; and
14) HB 6331 An Act institutionalizing and strengthening Public-Private
Partnerships, and appropriating funds therefor.
Others in the list of bills awaiting final reading passage are related to the grant or
renewal of franchises to media and other commercial entities and grant of Filipino
citizenship by law to deserving foreign individuals. (30) dpt