(Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo fields questions from media at impromptu presscon.)
SASMUAN, Pampanga – “It will mostly be oversight works. If ever, there is still the bicameral ratification but that will also be dependent on the Senate, if they will be able to finish them. We are just waiting for anything that they will return to us.”
So, summed up Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of what could be the remaining body of work at the House until the next Congress convenes.
“We have already finished all the legislative agenda that President Duterte laid out in his SONA (State of the Nation Address). So, we are now spending more time on our oversight function,” she said.
With “good laws” already enacted, Arroyo said the need is to ensure their implementation “to serve their purpose in ensuring the orderliness of the system.”
She made particular mention of laws related to the campaign against illegal drugs and the “ease of doing business” which serve as “the ways to bring about prosperity to the nation.”
The Speaker could not be detached from her legislative concerns even while on a visit at the island barangay of Batang 1st here Friday with her son, former Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo, who is poised to take over her post as Pampanga 2nd District representative.
(Comebacking congressman Mikey Arroyo hands rice pack to a Batang 1st resident.)
Arroyo, along with the congressional press corps and Pampanga newsmen, embarked on a 30-minute boat ride along the Pasac River from the Lubao Bamboo Hub and Eco-Park to reach Batang 1st, arriving to a rousing welcome from the residents.
“Usual kumustahan, lang” said the younger Arroyo of the event that has become a regular activity to his mother to check on the concerns of the community, notwithstanding its distance from the town center.
Together with Mayor Nardo Velasco and barangay chair Ernesto Baltazar, the Arroyos distributed rice and grocery packs to 100 families before partaking of a seafood lunch with their constituency.
The fare of crabs, shrimps and fish comprised the main produce of the barangay, situated as it is near the mouth of Manila Bay and host to vast fishponds.
