How Productive the House of Representatives are?
An Exploratory Report on House Representatives of the 14th and 15th Congress of the Philippines
Who
represents the people of the Philippines? Are people really being represented?
Does our representative do their responsibility efficiently? Are they
productive or just sitting-pretty while in the Congress? Do they try to improve
their performance in terms of productivity as they are re-elected?
Ask
yourselves. Is my representative a productive one or not?
Philippines is a democratic country. Therefore, it is the “rule by the people.[1]” The representation of the people to
the government perhaps is one of the most prominent features of a democratic
system. According to the Constitution, the Congress of the Philippines which
consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives is vested with legislative powers – the power to create and amend laws[2]. This law making body represents the people or the whole country to the government. It is, thus, necessary to demand the utmost focus from the members of the Congress. However, some would not bother if his/her representative to the government perform his/her duty as part of the law making body. Being a part
of a democratic country it is the right of the citizen to know if their representative exercises the task vested to them.
HOUSE
OF REPRESENTATIVES
According to the Section 5(1), Article VI of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the House of Representatives shall compose of not more than 250 members, unless otherwise fixed by law[3]. The members of House of Representatives, called as Representatives or Congressman/Congresswoman, are elected from the 212 legislative districts of the country[4]. They are apportioned among the provinces, cities, and the Metropolitan Manila area. Furthermore, there are representatives that are elected through a party-list system that constitute not more than 20 per centum of the total number of representatives[5].
"At what age are you allowed to run as a District Representative?"
"Can you be arrested without an arrest warrant?"
"Does the government have the power to freely take your properties?"
"Is it okay to kill anyone you want to?"
These are the questions can be answered by the rules and laws governing the Republic of the Philippines. Such are made by the Congress, also known as the lawmakers. The House of the Representatives is part of the Congress; it is, therefore, also their responsibility to take part in the lawmaking. However, the Philippine administration has a rotten image to the people. Some people question the performance of these representatives, on how productive they are.
How is
legislative productivity measured?
Productivity is defined as a measure
of efficiency and is the ratio of outputs to inputs[6]. Here, the proposals of the
legislator are consider as the inputs to the production of law and proposals
that passed the third reading as the output. This is implying that the number
of bills that passed the third reading increases the ratio. As the number of
bills that the representative passes and goes through the reading increases his
productivity. Consequently, if the representative keeps on proposing bills but
doesn’t get past third reading the ratio becomes smaller. By using this process
to compute the productivity, the occurrence of representatives having high
productivity just because they keep on filing bills is eliminated. Besides, it’s
said that a very little can be done to propose a bill.
Representatives' Productivity during the 14th Congress
“Our people give us no option except to make every piece of legislation we pass their best means to survive the crises and their strongest assurance that this government serves only their welfare.” – Prospero Nograles, Speaker of the House of the 14th Congress [8]
The 14th Congress commenced on July 2007 and ended on June 2010. It was under the second half of the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. It was the period which global economic downturn starts to hit the country. The House of Representatives have to work hard seriously to find the best solutions to strengthen the economy and aid the public from the impacts of the crisis. Some of the notable legislation to help the people are wider access to cheaper medicine (RA 9502), increased individual tax exemptions (RA 9504), job training in livelihood centers in 4th-, 5th- and 6th-class municipalities (RA 9509), and restructuring of socialized and low-cost housing loans (RA 9507)[9].
There are about 869 bills and house
bills out of more than 8,000 measures filed by the legislators passed the 3rd
reading. In this section, it shows the demographics of the members and the
bills or house resolutions they have passed.
Top 5 Most Productive
Legislator
|
District/Party
List
|
Total
Measures Filed
|
Bills
Approved on Third Reading
|
Productivity
Ratio
|
MENDOZA,
MARK LLANDRO L.
|
Batangas,
4th District
|
33
|
19
|
0.5758
|
SEACHON-LANETE,
RIZALINA L.
|
Masbate,
3rd District
|
4
|
2
|
0.5
|
VARGAS,
FLORENCIO L.
|
Cagayan,
2nd District
|
8
|
4
|
0.5
|
BIRON,
FERJENEL G.
|
Iloilo,
4th District
|
54
|
23
|
0.4259
|
BULUT,
ELIAS JR. C.
|
Apayao,
Lone District
|
12
|
5
|
0.4167
|
TUPAS,
NIEL JR. C.
|
Iloilo,
5th District
|
34
|
14
|
0.4118
|
Top 5
Least Productive
Legislator
|
District/Party
List
|
Total
Measures Filed
|
Bills
Approved on Third Reading
|
Productivity
Ratio
|
JOSON, EDUARDO NONATO N.
|
Nueva Ecija, 1st District
|
76
|
0
|
0
|
CASIÑO, TEODORO JR. A.
|
PL - BAYAN MUNA
|
70
|
0
|
0
|
BELTRAN, CRISPIN B.
|
PL - ANAK PAWIS
|
64
|
0
|
0
|
ILAGAN, LUZVIMINDA C.
|
PL - GABRIELA
|
64
|
0
|
0
|
DOMINGUEZ, VICTOR S.
|
Mt. Province, Lone District
|
49
|
0
|
0
|
Note: The legislators mentioned above are only 5 of those 70 who filed bill/s or house resolution/s but nothing was approved on the 3rd Reading. However, they have the highest number of measures filed.
Not Productive
Legislator
|
District/Party
List
|
Total
Measures Filed
|
Bills
Approved on Third Reading
|
Productivity
Ratio
|
CANONIGO,
RANULFO P.
|
PL -
KAKUSA
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
COBRADOR,
CEASAR A.
|
PL -
AGAP
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
DILANGALEN,
DIDAGEN P.
|
Maguindanao,
1st District
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
ESTRELLA,
CONRADO III M.
|
Pangasinan,
6th District
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
FRANCISCO,
OSCAR D.
|
PL -
ARC
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Note: The names mentioned above are only 5 of those 16 who did not filed any bill or house resolution. Of those 16 representatives, 12 are from party-list and 4 from the legislative districts .
Representatives' Productivity during the 15th Congress
The 15th Congress commenced on July 2010 to June 2013, marking the first three years of President Benigno Aquino III. The Congress set out to continue the legacy of the previous administrations and push the objectives of the current one. Notable legislations are the General Appropriations Act of 2011 (RA 10147), Electric Power Industry Reform Act (RA 10150) and GOCC Governance Act (RA 10149)[10].
There are about 567 bills and house bills out of more than 10,000 measures filed by the legislators passed the 3rd reading. In this section, it shows the demographics of the members and the bills or house resolutions they have passed.
There are about 567 bills and house bills out of more than 10,000 measures filed by the legislators passed the 3rd reading. In this section, it shows the demographics of the members and the bills or house resolutions they have passed.
Top 5 Most Productive
Legislator
|
District/Party
List
|
Total
Measures Filed
|
Bills
Approved on Third Reading
|
Productivity
Ratio
|
Vargas-Alfonso, Baby Aline
|
Cagayan, 2nd
|
8
|
6
|
0.75
|
Plaza, Ma. Valentina Galido
|
Agusan Del Sur, 1st
|
15
|
7
|
0.467
|
Emano, Yevgeny Vicente Beja
|
Misamis Oriental, 2nd
|
31
|
12
|
0.387
|
Begtang, Eleanor Bulut
|
Apayao, Lone
|
20
|
7
|
0.35
|
Bautista, Franklin Peralta
|
Davao Del Sur, 2nd
|
3
|
1
|
0.33
|
Eriguel, Eufranio Chan
|
La Union, 2nd
|
33
|
11
|
0.33
|
Ledesma, Julio IV Arenas
|
Negros Occ., 1st
|
6
|
2
|
0.33
|
Top 5 Least Productive
Legislator
|
District/Party
List
|
Total
Measures Filed
|
Bills
Approved on Third Reading
|
Productivity
Ratio
|
Palmones,
Angelo B.
|
Party
List - AGHAM
|
203
|
0
|
0
|
Mariano,
Rafael V.
|
Party
List - Anakpawis
|
161
|
0
|
0
|
Co,
Christopher S.
|
Party
List - AKO BICOL
|
88
|
0
|
0
|
Valencia,
Rodolfo Garong
|
Oriental
Mindoro, 1st District
|
57
|
0
|
0
|
Magsaysay,
Eulogio Rodriguez
|
Party
List - AVE
|
49
|
0
|
0
|
Note: The
legislators mentioned above 5 of those 91 who filed bill/s or house resolution/s
but nothing was approved on the 3rd Reading. However, they have the
highest number of measures filed.
Not Productive
Legislator
|
District/Party
List
|
Total
Measures Filed
|
Bills
Approved on Third Reading
|
Productivity
Ratio
|
Gatchalian, Wesley T.
|
Alay Buhay
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Maranan, Zeny
|
1 UTAK
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Ortega, Francis Emmanuel
|
Abono
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Pangandaman, Solaiman
|
AA Kasosyo
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Tan, Milagrosa Tee
|
Samar, 2nd
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
Note: The ones
above are those who did not file any legislation during the 15th Congress.
Attendance of the Top 5 Most Productive Members
Legislator
|
Total Attendance Record
|
Vargas-Alfonso, Baby Aline
|
103
|
Plaza, Ma. Valentina Galido
|
129
|
Emano, Yevgeny Vicente Beja
|
156
|
Bulut-Begtang, Eleanor
|
164
|
Bautista, Franklin Peralta
|
143
|
Eriguel, Eufranio Chan
|
159
|
Ledesma, Julio IV Arenas
|
108
|
Top 5 with Lowest Attendance Record
Legislator
|
Total Attendance Record
|
Productivity Ratio
|
Gatchalian, Wesley T.
|
19
|
0
|
Maranan, Zeny
|
19
|
0
|
Pangandaman, Solaiman
|
29
|
0
|
Mirasol, Alejandro
|
42
|
0 (with 9
authored bills)
|
Ebdane, Jun Omar
|
58
|
0.059 (17
authored; 1 passed)
|
Note: The total
number of sessions in the 15th Congress is 168.
Productivity of the Re-elected Representatives
Productivity
Comparison of Representatives who served the 14th and 15th
Congress
There are 138 members of the House of
Representatives served for the 14th Congress and re-elected the 15th
Congress. According to the Constitution, the Philippine House of Representatives is composed of district and sectoral representatives elected every three years. Representatives can be elected for not more than three consecutive terms. Therefore, some of them are on their 2nd
term, and the others are on their 3rd or last term.
In this section, it shows the comparison
of the productivity of the representatives who served for the 14th and
15th Congress. The comparison is through the Productivity Difference. Productivity Difference is the difference between
the productivity ratio of 14th and 15th Congress (Productivity Ratio of 15th - productivity
ratio of 14th = Productivity Difference).It implies that the
higher the Productivity Difference, the higher increase in Productivity Ratio.
Whereas, the lower the Productivity Difference, t
Top 5 Most Productivity Increase
Legislator
|
Districts/Party
List
|
Productivity
(14th
Congress)
|
Productivity
(15th
Congress)
|
Productivity
Difference
|
ROMAN,
HERMINIA B.
|
Bataan,
1st District
|
0
|
0.2143
|
0.2143
|
DATUMANONG,
SIMEON A.
|
Maguindanao,
2nd District
|
0
|
0.1667
|
0.1667
|
GO,
ARNULFO F.
|
Sultan
Kudarat, 2nd District
|
0.313
|
0.1818
|
0.1506
|
DEL
ROSARIO, ANTONIO A.
|
Capiz,
1st District
|
0
|
0.1429
|
0.1429
|
GONZALES,
NEPTALI II M.
|
Mandaluyong,
Lone District
|
0
|
0.1124
|
0.1124
|
Top 5 Least Productivity Difference
Legislator
|
Districts/Party
List
|
Productivity
(14th
Congress)
|
Productivity
(15th
Congress)
|
Productivity
Difference
|
MENDOZA,
MARK LLANDRO L.
|
Party
List - TUCP
|
0.5758
|
0
|
-0.5758
|
TUPAS,
NIEL JR. C.
|
Iloilo,
5th District
|
0.4118
|
0
|
-0.4118
|
FERNANDEZ,
DANILO RAMON S.
|
Laguna,
1st District
|
0.3889
|
0.0294
|
-0.3889
|
LABADLABAD,
ROSENDO S.
|
Zamboanga
Del Norte, 2nd District District
|
0.3571
|
0
|
-0.3571
|
ARAGO,
MARIA EVITA R.
|
Laguna,
3rd District
|
0.375
|
0.037
|
-0.3380
|
Not Productive
for Both Terms
Legislator
|
Districts/Party
List
|
Productivity
(14th Congress)
|
Productivity
(15h Congress)
|
Productivity
Difference
|
ORTEGA,
FRANCISCO EMMANUEL III R.
|
La
Union, 1st District
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
LACSON-NOEL,
JOSEPHINE R.
|
Malabon
City, Lone District
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
LEONEN-PIZARRO,
CATALINA G.
|
Party
List - ABS
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
MONTEJO,
NEIL BENEDICT A.
|
Party
List - An Waray
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
TOMAWIS,
ACMAD M.
|
Party
List - ALIF
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
ABAYON,
DARYL GRACE J.
|
Party
List - Aangat Tayo
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
ALCOVER,
PASTOR JR. M.
|
Party
List - ANAD
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
ANGPING,
MARIA ZENAIDA B.
|
Manila,
3rd District
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
ARQUIZA,
GODOFREDO V.
|
Party
List - Senior Citizens
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
ASILO,
BENJAMIN DR.
|
Manila,
1st District
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
BRIONES,
NICANOR M.
|
Party
List - AGAP
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
ESTRELLA,
ROBERT RAYMUND M.
|
Party
List - ABONO
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
LOPEZ,
CAROL JAYNE B.
|
Party
List - YACAP
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
ORTEGA,
VICTOR FRANCISCO C.
|
La
Union, 1st District
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
PAEZ,
CRESENTE C.
|
Party
List - COOP NATCCO
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
PIAMONTE,
MARIANO Jr U.
|
Party
List - A TEACHER
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
REMULLA,
JESUS CRISPIN C.
|
Cavite,
7th District
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
TIENG,
WILLIAM ERWIN C.
|
Party
List - BUHAY
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
-
no
measures filed for both terms
| |
-
no
measures filed for the 14th Congress
| |
-
proposed
bill/s or house resolution/s for the 15th congress but nothing passed the 3rd
reading
| |
-
proposed
bill/s or house resolution/s for the both terms but nothing passed the 3rd
reading
|
It can be concluded from the data gathered
that the number of attended sessions greatly affects the productivity of a
Congress member. Also, it can also be noted the efforts of the members to have
their bills passed. However, it is questionable that a high percentage of the members
of the House of Representatives belong to those who have zero productivity ratios
(either did not propose any bill/resolutions or proposed but nothing passed the
third reading). In the 14th Congress, 86 out of 274 or about 31% of
the Representatives belong to the group of zero productivity ratios. While,
about 33% or 95 out 292 of the Representatives of the 15th Congress belong
to the said group. Additionally, it is also questionable that the
Representatives that have the lowest productivity in both Congress (14th
and 15th) are from the party-list. Furthermore, the zero
productivity of the Representatives who served for 14th Congress and
re-elected for the 15th Congress is also questionable.
References:
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"Catalyzing Governance Reform Through Legislation." Congress.gov.ph. http://www.congress.gov.ph/download/14th/2009_accrep_second.pdf (accessed January 11, 2014).
"Consolidating Reforms, Promoting Public Welfare, 14th Congress." Congress.gov.ph. N.p., 2009. Web. 8 March. 2014.
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Zimmermann, Kim. "What is Democracy? Definition, Types & History." LiveScience. http://www.livescience.com/20919-democracy.html (accessed March 9, 2014).
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