Arroyo to push for Duterte’s legislative agenda

A day after taking the helm of the 292-member House of Representatives, Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo vowed yesterday to push for the legislative agenda of the Duterte administration.

“I will endeavor to carry out the legislative agenda of President Duterte in the Lower House,” Arroyo said in a statement.

The former president took over the position of Pantaleon Alvarez in chaotic proceedings hours before Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.

She was officially installed late Monday after getting the votes of a majority or 184 of her colleagues who convened after the SONA.

“I am extremely honored to have been supported by my colleagues at the House of Representatives to be their new Speaker,” she said yesterday.

She also promised to restart the stalled ratification of the Bangsamoro Organic Law, a collateral damage in Monday’s leadership takeover ruckus.

As speaker, Arroyo is unlikely to face much difficulty in making her colleagues toe the administration line.

Her colleagues yesterday vowed to help the administration achieve its agenda as spelled out by the President in his third SONA.

“If we have the majority of the House supporting a new Speaker, and the new Speaker is supportive of the present administration, then, whatever the President said in his SONA, members of the House will support,” Rep. Karlo Nograles said.

The Davao City congressman, who heads the House committee on appropriations, assured the Duterte administration that the super majority coalition will push his legislative agenda.

Rep. LRay Villafuerte of Camarines Sur called on the public to rally behind Duterte’s reinvigorated war against illicit drugs and official corruption.

“The President has given his marching orders to all concerned into his third year in office. I fully support the President’s sustained ‘relentless’ war against illicit drugs and hope all lawabiding Filipinos will do, too, in order to protect lives, especially of the youth,” he said.

Villafuerte likewise appealed to all concerned government agencies to heed the President’s call for speedier delivery of public services by strictly implementing in their respective offices the provisions of the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) Law.

Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. welcomed the President’s resolve to upgrade the country’s telecommunications services by bringing in a third market participant.

“We are counting on the third player to provide the effective market competition needed to improve public access to reliable, high-speed internet services,” said Campos, author of a bill seeking to classify broadband as a basic telecommunications service.