PH Lawmakers Vow to Combat Inflation as 19th Congress Officially Opens

The 19th Congress officially opened on Monday morning and looks to fight a “struggling” economy.

This comes as both the Senate and the House of Representatives opened their sessions at 10 am Philippine Standard Time, just hours before President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is set to deliver his first State of the Nation Address (SONA).

The House of Representatives formally elected Bongbong Marcos’ cousin, Leyte 1st District Representative Martin Romualdez as House speaker, while the Senate formally elected Marcos’ ally senator Juan Miguel Zubiri as Senate president, after no other nominations were presented.

Zubiri, in his acceptance speech as the Senate president, acknowledged the key challenges that the country is facing, citing “food, fuel, fiscal, and the fading faith of the people in our institutions”.

Moreover, the Senate president added that the performance of the government should not be through “likes, shares, and views,” as politics in the country are quickly seeping through social media platforms.

Zubiri said that the government’s performance should instead be measured through key metrics.

“Jobs created, hunger reduced, inflation slashed, [Gross Domestic Product] growth, higher school test scores, and middle class expanded are the metrics that should gauge our performance instead of likes, shares, and views,” he said.

For the House of Representatives, Romualdez was nominated by his nephew, Rep. Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, who said that the qualifications of Romualdez are beyond sufficient.

There were also no other nominations for speaker of the House. (GFB)