Presumptive House Speaker and Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) Rep. Pantaleon D. Alvarez of Davao del Norte on Wednesday said he would ask President-elect Rodrigo R. Duterte to regularly convene the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) to effectively convey to the 17th Congress the next administration’s economic and legislative agenda.
Alvarez said the council is mandated to determine and recommend socioeconomic development goals and to integrate legislative agenda with the national development plan.
“As soon as President Duterte takes over and calls for the first Cabinet meeting, we will request that Ledac be convened,” Alvarez told the BusinessMirror.
“We still don’t have economic agenda for the 17th Congress. I am waiting for guidance from the Executive branch. I want to wait for the Ledac meeting to identify our priorities,” he added.
Alvarez, who reportedly has the votes to become the next Speaker of the House of Representatives, earlier vowed to push for a regular Ledac meeting in the 17th Congress.
Alvarez said Ledac is needed for a smooth and early passage of the priority measures of the next administration, adding, “We also need them [Ledac meetings] for a smooth relationship between the Legislative and Executive [branches of the government].”
Alvarez has said the House, under his leadership, will prioritize a number of measures—changing the country’s form of government from republican to federalism, the revival of the death penalty and amendments to the Juvenile Justice Welfare Act, or the so-called Pangilinan law.
During the Aquino administration, only two Ledac meetings were convened. Republic Act 7640, or the Ledac law, states the council should meet at the least on a quarterly basis.
Lawmakers and members of the Executive branch draw up a list of priority measures in Congress during the Ledac meetings. The council is chaired by the president.
Also participating in the Ledac meetings are the vice president, the Senate president, the House speaker, seven Cabinet members, three senators, three House members and one representative each from the local governments, the youth and the private sector.
Cha-cha
Meanwhile, Alvarez said he is open to suggestions of lifting the economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution in the 17th Congress.
Alvarez said the 17th Congress will not only focus on the proposal to change the form of government via Charter change or Cha-cha.
“When you revise the Constitution you have to change everything. We need to tackle everything either in a constitutional convention or constituent assembly,” Alvarez said.
Earlier, outgoing Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. has urged the Duterte administration to take a holistic approach on amending the 1987 Constitution.
Belmonte also asked the next government to consider the proposed economic Cha-cha. The Speaker is the principal author of the resolution lifting the economic provision of the Constitution in the 16th Congress.
On Tuesday Belmonte said he will support Alvarez in the speakership race in the lower chamber.