Cagayan de Oro legislator most prolific bill filer with 780 measures

MANILA -- Two-term lawmaker Rufus Rodriguez representing the second district of Cagayan de Oro City has filed the most number of House bills in the present 15th Congress with 780 measures authored, records show.

The number would reach almost a thousand if the House bills he co-authored from July 1, 2010 up to June 13, 2012 are to be counted. According to a report made by the Indexing and Monitoring Group of the Bills and Index Department, Rodriguez also co-authored 186 national measures and 24 local bills.

Only two of Rodriguez’s authored measures, however, have been enacted into law, so far.

These are Republic Act (RA) 10151, An act allowing the employment of night workers, through his House Bill 4276; and RA 10159, which amended the provision on subsidiary imprisonment in the Revised Penal Code, through House Bill 600.

Rodriguez only came in second in the list of prolific bill filers in the 14th Congress next to former Alliance for Rural Concerns (ARC) party-list Representative Narciso Santiago III. His record was 49 measures less compared to Santiago’s 630 authored bills.

Rodriguez’s record in the present Congress will be hard to surpass for second-placer Quezon City Representative Winston Castelo as his measures authored are only 270. Castelo also co-authored 207 bills.

Castelo was earlier criticized for his House Bill 5316 or the “anti-planking bill” which bans “planking” or the act of lying down like planks saying “life and limb are pretty much at risk” during street rallies or similar protest actions where the act is performed.

Castelo, a neophyte in Congress, also filed House Bill 5850 or the “Seat Space Requirement of Jeepneys Act of 2012,” which requires manufacturers to provide a seating space capacity. He proposed an “anthropometric dimension” equivalent to 357 millimeter hip breadth or 14 inches.

Third in the list is Aurora Representative Sonny Angara with 236 authored measures, 227 of which are of national significance.

Angara is on his last term in the House of Representatives and is eyed by the ruling Liberal Party (LP) to join its senatorial line-up for the 2013 midterm elections.

Of the 17 national bills that have been passed into law so far in the current Congress, four were co-authored by Angara, who also sits as the chairman of the House committee on higher and technical education.

These are: the Kindergarten Act, Rationalizing the Nightwork Prohibition on Women Workers Act, the Act Extending the Implementation of the Lifeline Rate, and the Act Adjusting the Rate of Subsidiary Imprisonment to One Day for an Amount Equivalent to the Daily Minimum Wage of a Laborer in the National Capital Region.

Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teddy Casino occupied the fourth spot with 178 measures authored and 376 bills co-authored.

Camarines Sur Representative and former presidential son Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo came in fifth with 169 bills authored and 90 measures co-authored.

Completing the top 20 prolific bill filers are Representatives:

6. Angelo Palmones of Agham party-list – authored 159, co-authored 226
7. Marcelino Teodoro of Marikina City – authored 153 (135 of national significance), co-authored 209
8. Augusto Syjuco, Jr. of Iloilo – authored 153 (109 of national significance), co-authored 230
9. JV Ejercito of San Juan City – authored 144, co-authored 65
10. Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis party-list – authored 143, co-authored 246
11. Luis Villafuerte of Camarines Sur – authored 129, co-authored 84
12. Salvador Escudero III of Sorsogon – authored 128, co-authored 274
13. Anthony Golez, Jr. of Bacolod City – authored 108, co-authored 87
14. House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. – authored 105, co-authored 26
15. Rodolfo Biazon of Muntinlupa City – authored 104, co-authored 26
16. Bernardo Vergara of Baguio City – authored 95, co-authored 117
17. Raymond Palatino of Kabataan party-list – authored 90, co-authored 315
18. Ma. Theresa Bonoan-David of Manila – authored 82, co-authored 137
19. Roger Mercado of Southern Leyte – authored 75, co-authored 108
20. Christopher Co of Ako Bicol party-list – authored 73, co-authored 225

The list also showed that five House members have not authored a single national or local bill.

Representatives Robert Estrella and Francisco Emmanuel Ortega III of Abono party-list, Solaiman Pangandaman of AA KASOSYO party-list, Milagrosa Tan of Western Samar, and Alejandro Mirasol of Negros Occidental only co-authored measures for the past two years.

Representative Mirasol took his oath of office last June 4 only. He was elected to replace the late Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, who succumbed to a liver ailment while in London.

Pangandaman meanwhile resigned over a year ago before he migrated to the United States. He has since been replaced by his brother, former agrarian reform secretary Nasser Pangandaman. Nasser has so far filed two House measures. (Kathrina Alvarez/Sunnex)