An overview of Baguio lawmaker’s performance

LONE Baguio Representative Mauricio Domogan, whose three-year term is soon to end, yielded bills for the year 2009 that zoomed in on home city Baguio and zoomed out on vital events in the Philippines.

For Baguio, a big block of bills he passed were focused on the improvement of educational institutions.

Domogan was principal author of six bills that separated annex high schools into individual institutions, thereby getting their own fund allocation.

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Four annex schools of the Pines City National High School were proposed to become independent, with one already enacted.

House Bill 05094, which has now been enacted as Republic Act 09843, separated the Pines City National High School - Pinsao Annex in Barangay Pinsao, Baguio City from the main school. It is now known as Pinsao National High School.

House Bill 04531 meanwhile seeks to separate the Pines City National High School - Magsaysay Annex in Barangay New Lucban, Baguio City from the main school Pine City National High School. The Magsaysay Annex is set to be name Magsaysay National High School. The bill only needs the signature of the President.

Two more similar bills targeted at the two other annexes of the aforementioned high school - Joaquin Smith Annex in Barangay Asin Road and the Bonifacio Annex in Barangay Cresencia Village were successfully passed and are awaiting the approval of the President.

Another tandem of bills, aimed at a different school - Baguio City National High School, posed the same recommendation.

House Bill 04819, an act separating the Loakan Annex from the Baguio City National High School, which will then be known as Mil-An National High School, has been transmitted to the President.

On the other hand, the Roxas Annex of the same school was also recommended to be independent and called Roxas National High School under House Bill 04572.

Under Representative Domogan’s tenure, a Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) office was put up in Baguio City through House Bill 00502.

The Senate has also passed since last year House Bill 04827 principally authored by the Baguio lawmaker, which aims to construct a Baguio City National Science High School in Barangay Pinsao.

He also sought to establish a Philippine Science High School in the Cordillera Administrative Region, but House Bill 00498, is yet to be discussed in the plenary.

Other noteworthy achievements of Domogan included the reform of the Baguio City charter and his efforts to exclude parcels of famous attraction Burnham Park from conversion into residential lands and to declare the park as a national park.

National issues

A staunch ally of the administration, Domogan co-authored two resolutions that eventually dismissed two impeachment complaints against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

House Resolution 00334, which was then adopted into House Resolution 00022, dismissed the “verified complaint for the impeachment of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo filed by Atty. Roberto Rafael Pulido for betrayal of trust."

House Resolution 00892, adopted into House Resolution 00255, meanwhile dismissed "the verified complaints of Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo filed by Jose De Venecia, et. al., Guillermo Sotto, Manuel Quezon III, et al., and Atty. Oliver Lozano for alleged culpable violation of the constitution, bribery, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust.

Domogan also co-authored the House Resolution 01483 to dismiss another impeachment complaint, this time of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.

In the historic joint session that discussed the recent Martial Law that was imposed in Maguindanao, Domogan was one of those who spoke before the plenary after military rule was lifted while Congress was still in plenary.

He said the early lifting of Maguindanao Martial Law should erase talks on a no-election scenario this coming May.

Domogan also took his stand on the infamous Desperate Housewives “racial slur” in 2007, where actress Teri Hatcher, who plays Susan Mayer, asked whether the person attending to her during a medical consultation “can I check those diplomas because I want to make sure that they're not from some med school in the Philippines.”

He co-authored House Resolution 00267, which condemned the American television series and demanded an apology from the producers of the show.

The call for a constitutional convention under House Concurrent Resolution 0032, one of the priority bills once Congress resumes session, was also co-authored by the Baguio representative.

Victims of Typhoon Ondoy last year were given preference by House Joint Resolution 0047, also co-authored by Domogan, mandating all government financial institutions such as the GSIS, SSS, and Pag-ibig to suspend loan payments for at least 90 days.

Up for approval from the Senate is House Bill 08841 that pushes for the rights of students required to take professional licensing examinations to enroll in review centers of their choice.

Other bills he co-authored focused on tariffs, taxes and violations on child pornography. (Angela Casauay/Sunnex)