JULY 6, 2013

NR # 3156B

2nd batch of new lawmakers to attend course on legislation

A second batch of forty-four (44) new members of the House of Representatives will participate in the four-day Executive Course on Legislation which starts on Monday, July 8. I am really proud of the interest and readiness of our neophyte colleagues to learn and share their fresh insights on how to be effective legislators, said re-elected Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. who is the hands-down choice to retain the post of House Speaker in the 16th Congress. The four-day course, to be held at the Andaya Hall of the Batasan complex, is a collaborative initiative of the House of Representatives under Belmonte and the University of the Philippines-National College of Public Administration and Government (UP-NCPAG) led by Dean Edna E. A. Co. The HRep-UP-NCPAG Project Team is led by Co as Course Director together with House Secretary General Marilyn Barua-Yap as well as course consultants Dr. J. Prospero De Vera III, Prof. Dan Saqguil and House Deputy Secretary General Edgardo Pangilinan, coordinators, a training facilitator and assistants. Aside from Co and Yap, other speakers or resource persons include DPWH USec. Romeo S. Momo; former Rep. and incoming DOH Undersecretary Janette L. Garin; former Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Erin Taada III, former Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, Rep. Mel Senen S. Sarmiento and Rep. Karlo Alexei B. Nograles. The course would enable participants to gain substantial working knowledge of the theories, concepts, and dynamics of legislation to assist them in performing their law-making roles; appreciate the value of legislation in the context of Philippine development, in general, and the development challenges of their legislative districts, in particular; as well as understand the dynamics of the legislative process and the management of relationships with peers, executive agencies, civil society organizations, international development agencies and their constituents. The topics to be discussed include the Philippine administrative system; the Philippine development plan and the constituents; the roles and challenges facing legislators; the national budget process; the dynamics of legislation; working with peers and institutions within the HRep.; parliamentary procedures and House Rules; communicating with constituents, the nation and the world; platforms of legislative agenda; and the Priority Development Assistance Fund. The executive course on legislation for the first batch of 32 new member-participants opened at the Executive House, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City last June 24 in the presence of UP President Alfredo Pascual and Speaker Belmonte. The succeeding sessions and the closing rites were held at the Andaya Hall from June 25th to the 27th. (30) dpt