The House approved the Fair Competition Act, the bill amending the Cabotage Law, and the proposed Philippine Archipelagic Sea Lanes Act along with 25 other national measures and 40 local bills.

Authored by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and the late Tarlac Rep. Enrique “Henry” Cojuangco, House Bill 5286 or the proposed Fair Competition Act gives new players in the market a level playing field in competing against big business.

The measure, which was strongly pushed by Cojuangco, aims to benefit Filipino consumers by ensuring fair competition that would result in quality goods produced at lower costs. 

The bill provides for the creation of a Philippine Competition Commission under the Office of the President, which shall implement a national competition policy. The Commission is also tasked to review business mergers and acquisitions.

HB 5286 also prohibits all unfair methods of competition as well as unfair deceptive trade or business practice which have the object or effect of unreasonably and substantially preventing, restricting or lessening competition.

The Cabotage Bill or HB 5610, on the other hand,  seeks to allow the entry and movement of foreign cargo vessels between ports within the country; and lower costs of shipping containerized export cargoes from Philippine ports to international ports  and containerized import cargoes from international ports.

HB 5487—the Archipelagic Sea Lanes Bill—seeks  to allow the “continuous, expeditious, and unobstructed transit” for vessels engaged in economic trade with the Philippines and neighboring countries.

Under the bill, foreign ships and aircraft passing through Philippine territory are allowed to traverse not more than 25 nautical miles to either side of the axis line of the sea lane, or “shall not navigate closer to the coast more than 10 percent of the distance between the nearest points on island bordering the sea lane.”

Among the 28 other measures passed by the House on final reading were: HB 5060, or an Act establishing the Filipino Identification System; HB 5605,  an Act establishing a career guidance and counseling program for all secondary schools; HB 5604, an Act providing for the establishment of senior high schools in all legislative districts;

HB 5603, an Act promoting the entrepreneurship and financial literacy program among the Filipino youth by instituting mechanisms and strategies; HB 5585, an Act providing for a Comprehensive Hazardous and Radioactive Wastes Management; HB 5520, an Act strengthening the procedure for registration of voters during barangay elections; and  HB 5231, an Act requiring the registration of all users of prepaid SIM cards.