The House of Representatives resumes regular session Monday with the leadership determined to squeeze into the list of legislative priorities several energy and oil industry reform measures that will require action before the chamber’s will be saddled with a quorum crisis usually experienced during an election year.

Speaker Prospero Nograles has ordered four House committees – energy, appropriations, trade and industry, and ways and means – to act on four bills that seek to address the unpredictable prices of oil and electricity.

Nograles stressed that third and final reading approval of the proposed P1.541 trillion General Appropriations Act for 2010 remains on top of the priority legislative agenda as congressmen return to work Monday.

The House leader laid down the list of legislative already in their advance stages in the legislative mill, saying he expects the chamber to act on them this year.

However, quorum problems were expected to provide a stumbling block to the determined efforts of the House leadership to dispose of the proposals included in the priority list.

Neophyte lawmakers led by Reps. Reno Lim (NPC, Albay); Adeline Rodriguez-Zaldarriaga (Lakas-Kampi, Rizal) and Emil Ong (Lakas-Kampi, Northern Samar) said they have been advised that quorum problems may start as early as November after candidates for the 2010 elections have filed their certificates of candidacy.

“We were told that quorum becomes a real problem as the campaign period approaches,” said Lim.

However, Majority Leader Arthur Defensor assured that the collective resolve of the House leadership and the members of the majority coalition to remain faithful to their constitutional mandate will override the issue of quorum.

Nograles reminded lawmakers that it is their “constitutional duty” to act on legislative proposals that are still pending.

The House leader said he has mobilized various congressional committees to act swiftly on measures that could address the “disturbing pricing puzzle in the oil and power industries.”

“The Committee on Energy chaired by Rep. Mikey Macapagal-Arroyo and the House Ways and Means panel led by Rep. Exequiel Javier are on top of these things and we have been in constant consultations even during the break. I have also been regularly briefed by Appropriations Chairman relative to the GAA,” Nograles said.

Among the vital measures that that need to be fast tracked are:

1. House Bill Nos. 1628, 1936 and 2931 seeking to consolidate all laws relating to transmission, distribution and supply of natural gas;

2. HB 6207, 6398 and 6646 which will reduce electricity rates as a result of the utilization of the government share in the discovery, exploration, development and/or production of indigenous sources of energy.

3. HB Nos. 346, 592, 1320, 1724, 3029, 3030, 4262 and 4890 which will amend the Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act to increase competition at the retail level and strengthen the power of the Department of Energy;

4. HB Nos. 6208, 6351 and 6490 seeking to impose a uniform franchise tax on distribution utilities enjoying legislative franchise in lieu of any and all taxes in order that cost of electricity may be reduced.

Nograles said the swift approval of the GAA remains the main objective of the Lower House.

“Love of country is never the monopoly of anyone. We are all Filipinos who love the same mother land,” Nograles said as he aired an appeal to solons to attend the sessions.

Defensor said House Joint Resolution allotting P12-billion supplemental appropriations for the relief, rehabilitation, reconstructions and other works and services in the wake of typhoons 'Ondoy', 'Pepeng' and 'Ramil'.

Defensor reiterated that the supplemental budget will continue to support the current reconstruction programs in the Panay islands devastated by the earlier typhoon 'Frank.”

Aside from the third reading passage of the 2010 GAA, Defensor said the House is determined to pass on final reading the proposed Magna Carta of the Poor contained in House Bill 6915 and the OECD Tax Compliance Amendment (Exchange of Tax Information Matters) under HB 6330.

Under the House calendar of business, for second reading approval are the following important measures: HB 3124 – Accelerating the implementation of retail competition and open access in the Electric Power Industry (amending the EPIRA Law); HB 3306 – Granting the Right of Reply; HB 3756 – Compensation to Human Rights Victims; HB 5043 – Providing for a National Policy of Reproductive Health; HB 5077 – Further Strengthening the Anti-Money Laundering Law; HB 6054 – Providing the Conduct of Elections on May 2010; HB 5619 – Enhancing the use of English as medium of instruction; HB 6266 – Instituting a self-sustaining Forest Management Program; HB 6290 – Instituting reforms in Land Administration; and the Cybercrime Act under HB 6794, among others for second reading approval.