legislatioN
16th Congress
The true measure of a Senator’s body of work is the positive effect his bills have on the lives of the many nameless, faceless Filipinos counting on our legislators to alleviate the problems they face day by day. During the Sixteenth Congress, Sen. Ramon ‘Bong’ Revilla Jr. authored/co-authored many bills now signed into law that have achieved that noble standard.
Foremost among those bills was RA10665 or Open High School System Act which he personally authored and shepherded through the whole legislative process until it was signed into law. This bill created the Open High School Program (OHSP) which has opened an alternative program and given new hope for Filipinos who could not attend regular high school class programs due to personal, financial and other reasons. Barely three months after RA10665 became law, RA10687 or the Unified Student Financing Assistance System for Tertiary Education (UniFAST) followed, this time assisting qualified but financially disadvantaged students finish college. Both these bills reveal how close the issue of Education is to the Senator’s heart. It has always been his staunch belief that education is the vehicle that will lift millions of poor Filipinos from poverty.
In the socio-economic front, his RA10693, the Microfinance NGOs Act and RA10817, the Philippine Halal Export Development Act has been a great help to small entrepreneurs all over the country. RA10692, the PAGASA modernization Act has given a much-needed boost to PAGASA’s technological capabilities to track and analyze weather patterns and RA10821, the Children’s Emergency Relief and Protection Act underscores his concern for the plight of the most vulnerable sector of society during typhoons and other such calamities. All of the other bills authored/co-authored/sponsored by the Senator address a whole spectrum of concerns and issues faced by our country.
The common denominator in all these bills is that they reveal a strong connection and empathy between Senator Bong Revilla and his countrymen, especially the underprivileged and disadvantaged living in the fringes of our society.
