Tuesday, November 25, 2008 Villar still gets highest satisfaction ratings
FORMER Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. has remained the government official with the highest public satisfaction ratings, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey said.
The Third Quarter 2008 SWS survey found 61 percent satisfied and 17 percent dissatisfied with the performance of Villar.
Vice President Noli de Castro followed the senator, with 58 percent satisfied and 24 percent dissatisfied with his performance; while 29 percent satisfied and 33 percent dissatisfied with Chief Justice Reynato Puno and 24 percent satisfied and 36 percent dissatisfied with Speaker Prospero Nograles.
The survey also showed the Senate as the top government institution with 46 percent satisfaction rating followed by the Supreme Court, 39 percent; the House of Representatives, 38 percent; and the Cabinet, 31 percent.
“The people’s continued trust and confidence in the Senate is confirmed by survey results that consistently show the Senate as the most trusted institution,” Villar said.
The lawmaker is grateful to his colleagues in the Senate for giving him the opportunity to serve as president of the upper Chamber for two and a half years.
The position, he said, helped him pursue the agenda of poverty alleviation in the country.
“It was my honor to lead this Chamber, which succeeded in achieving greater heights in crafting pieces of legislation specifically designed to address the needs of our people. It was also an independent Senate that proved to be relentless in assuming its function to provide a system of check and balance in this government,” Villar said.
Under Villar’s watch as Senate president from July 2006 to November 2008, the Senate passed on third reading 390 bills, which focus on social justice and poverty alleviation, improvement of the justice system, entrepreneurial development, agricultural competitiveness, health promotion, environmental protection, and local empowerment.
Also, among the notable bills passed and signed into law during Villar’s term were: the Magna Carta for Small and Medium Enterprises, the law extending the use of the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, Universally Accessible, Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008, the University of the Philippines Charter Act, the law establishing the Personal Equity and Retirement Account, and the law granting tax exemptions to minimum wage earners.
“Under my leadership, the Senate made a mark as a multi-tasking institution. Never neglecting our function to legislate, we also took the lead in ferreting out the truth behind controversies hounding the nation,” said the former Senate leader.
He added that the Senate investigated the $329 million National Broadband Network-ZTE deal, resumed the investigation into the P728 million fertilizer fund scam, and conducted inquiries into the so-called “euro generals” controversy.
“It was also during this time when senators channeled their energies to defend before the Supreme Court the powers and rights of the Senate as enshrined in the Constitution in the face of threats to undermine the Senate,” he said.
Led by Villar, the Senate defended in the high court the extent of the power of the upper Chamber to summon resource persons in its legislative inquiries and the coverage of the executive privilege.
“The Senate, under our watch, remained a formidable force against Charter change,” Villar said, adding that he hoped the new Senate leadership under Senator Juan Ponce Enrile would see no need to rush amendments to the Constitution before 2010 to dispel suspicion that it would only be used to extend the term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and other government officials. (Press release)
