Zubiri lists Senate priority measures

By Macon Ramos-Araneta

SENATE President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Monday called on his colleagues to pass bills creating the Center for Disease Control, Virology Institute of the Philippines, and the Medical Reserve Corps for the people affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, among other vital measures.

Zubiri gave assurance however, that the Senate which will remain independent and that the proposed laws they would be crafting are not upon the behest of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., but by the people. “Never must we be caught flatfooted again,” Zubiri said as he led the opening of the Second Regular Session of the 19th Congress.

“To farmers who feed other people but cannot feed their own, let us pass a stronger anti-agricultural smuggling law,” he added. In this way, according to him, the flood of imports will not drown the crops the farmers grow.

He also batted for the passage of the Ease of Paying Taxes Bill so that taxpayers burdened by complicated tax rules formulated by “men who can change them at will.”

He also cited the need to pass the Wasteto-Energy Bill so that “trash can power the very homes where it came from.”

“To seafarers battling the elements, loneliness, unsafe working conditions,