by Antonio M. Ajero
THERE are close to 300 members of the House of Representatives — 285, to be exact– whose proposed laws of local and national application compete for attention, a situation enough to discourage weak-hearted lawmakers from proposing their pet bills and resolutions.
Not so with Rep. Maria Carmen Zamora-Apsay of the first district of Compostela Valley Province, who’s undaunted by the “competition.” It is no wonder then that in the first 14 months of her first term in the House, the thirty-ish lawmaker had caused 14 of her pet bills to be passed on third and final reading. That’s at the rate of one bill a month, a no mean feat for a first-termer.
Her bills include those which seek the establishment of a Land Transportation Office (LTO) in her province; increasing the bed capacity of the Davao Regional Hospital from 200 to 400; establishing a Registry of Deeds office in the province; requiring mandatory coverage of all barangay health workers, barangay day care workers and barangay nutrition scholars; conferring appropriate civil service eligibility upon members of the Sangguniang Bayan, Sangguniang Panlungsod and Sangguniang Panlalawigan; amending the Motor Vehicle User’s Charge Law; establishing a Credit Assistance Program for Overseas Filipino Workers;
House bills creating two Regional Trial Court branches in ComVal, together with 13 similar bills creating RTC branches in other parts of the country; establishing the Compostela Valley State College; placing the Mt. Tagub-Kampalili Ranges in Maragusan under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) as a protected landscape; an act strengthening consumer protection in the purchase of brand new motor vehicles (Lemon Law Act);
Declaring August 1 of every year as a special non-working holiday in yhe municipality of Compostela; establishing the second engineering district in the province; and declaring March 8 of every year a special non-working holiday in the province.
Including those she had co-authored with other House members, 23 bills which Maricar had worked for in the committees have been approved on third and final reading.
“We are focusing on measures which will have great impact on my district,” Apsay said, adding “we will not let up until they are approved in the Senate and signed into law by the President.”
Election fever
With the 2013 election just over a year away, what are the chances of these bills being caught up by the election fever?
Even with the mid-term elections only around the corner, Representative Apsay said she is confident that her bills have enough lead time to see their enactment into law even before the Third Regular Session ends.
She is particularly hopeful for the passage of the bills on the LTO provincial office, appropriate eligibility for Sangguniang members, and 2 additional RTC branches “as these bills will directly intervene for frontline services.”
Apsay also anticipates the passage of the Compostela Valley State College bill, the Lemon bill and the one seeking to place Mt. Tagub in Maragusan under NIPAS as a protected landscape before her first term ends.
Civil service eligibility
Her bill (HB 4357) seeking civil service eligibility for members of local legislative councils who have served the required aggregate years in office has been ratified by both the House and the Senate after approval on third reading. It has been transmitted to the Office of the President for approval.
Asked about projects she has implemented apart from her proposed laws, Apsay rattled off more than two dozens of livelihood programs and trainings, medical and legal outreach programs, sports and recreational activities, educational projects and teacher trainings on top of the socio-civic undertakings she had been implementing for years such as extending calamity and disaster response and burial, financial and medical assistance.
Hard projects
These do not include the “hard projects” or infrastructure development such as construction of barangay halls, stages, bleachers, mini-gymnasiums, school buildings, social halls, health centers, farm-to-market roads, bridges and other concrete facilities.
“We will continue to be very transparent in their implementation in line with the new guidelines of the present administration, and make sure that they are really the priority needs in the respective areas of those we represent,” Apsay said.
Apsay maybe a neophyte in the House, but she is not inexperienced in the tricky business of lawmaking. Only 37, she had been a lawmaker for 19 years, first as representative of the Sangguniang Kabataan Federation in the Davao del Norte provincial board when she was only 18. This was followed by a long stint in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of the newly-created ComVal Province.
Maricar is the daughter of former congressman Manuel “Way Kurat” Zamora, himself a grizzled lawmaker as town councilor and later provincial board member before becoming member of the House.
