Sorsogon lawmaker Wowo Fortes files Bills of local and national importance, first 100 days report says

by Bicol Express News

The Representative in the 19th Congress of the Second Congressional District of Sorsogon Attorney Manuel “Wowo” Fortes Jr. reported his first one hundred days in office with two local and six national bills.

The presentation was simple and direct, using the dialect that made it clearer to his constituents to understand the working of a sitting Congressman is not limited to local legislation, but must work in consonance with the national development goals.

Fortes is the first legal mind to represent the Second District of Sorsogon, and the youngest among the previous occupants of the seat.

As a lawyer, he was chosen to become the assistant majority leader of the Rules committee, is a member of the Appropriations, Suffrage and Electoral reforms, Rural and Local development, Bicol Recovery and Economic Development, Housing and Urban Development, Energy, Constitutional Amendments, and Public Works and Highways committees.

In the months following his assumption of office, Congressman Fortes lined up his priority bills regarding health, education, agriculture, good governance and poverty reduction.

For his local legislation, he filed House Bills 3455 and 3456, the former seeks to establish a high school in Alegria, Barcelona, while HB 3456 was intended for the establishment of a secondary public school at Calintaan and Calayuan, Matnog.

For bills of national significance, he submitted House Bill 00005 seeking to establish an on-site, in-city, near-city, or off-city local government resettlement programs for informal settler families in accordance with people plan and mandating the implementing local government, jointly with the Human Settlements and Urban Development,

This measure was reported on September 29, 2022, as submitted by the Housing and Urban Development committee.

HB 3457 seeks to establish a national Blood Center and HB 3458 calls for the Institutionalizing the Community-Driven Development Approach as a National Strategy for Inclusive Growth and Social Protection.

Another measure of national importance that Fortes filed is HB 3459 which will create the Human Resources Management Officer in the Local Government Units. This will amend Sections 443,454 and 463 of RA 7160, the Local Government Code.

He also co-authored bills of national importance, including the passage of the 2023 national budget and the postponement of the barangay and SK elections of December 2022.

Except for the 2023 national budget and the postponement of the BSKE, the rest of the HB filed were referred to the respective committees.

Looking at the submitted Bills of Cong Wowo, two are of local importance and six are national in scope. He was the principal author of four national bills, and two local and co-authored another two national measures in his first hundred days as a member of the 19th Congress.

Going back to serve his constituents is his selection as a committee member of Local Government and Rural Development, giving the impression that he is building a good consensus for the development of the Second District of Sorsogon.