In the 20th Congress of the Philippines, Senator Joel Villanueva took the lead in submitting a package of ten key legislative agendas, covering critical areas such as labor protection, wage reform, combating online gambling, and anti-corruption, which quickly attracted widespread attention.
Long dedicated to labor rights, Villanueva's proposed bills still focus on "protecting the underprivileged workers." He proposes to completely abolish the widely used "5-5-5" short-term contract employment model, believing that this method leads to workers being in a long-term unstable and unprotected state, and insists on promoting an employment system oriented towards long-term employment.
In terms of wage reform, he believes that the current minimum wage level is far from sufficient to meet the basic needs of workers, hence he suggests a "living wage" mechanism. He advocates for a unified and scientific wage assessment system, graded according to regional economic differences, allowing workers to sustain their lives with one job, without relying on loans or part-time jobs to make ends meet.
For the overseas labor force, Villanueva also proposes a specific bill, advocating for the expansion of legal aid funds and the establishment of dedicated medical institutions, addressing the long-standing issues of lack of support in rights protection and medical care for overseas Filipino workers.
In the field of public security, Villanueva directly points out that online gambling is a cancer in Philippine society today. He notes that online gambling not only drives telecommunications fraud, human trafficking, money laundering, and other criminal activities but also severely undermines social ethics and family structures. He advocates for legislative measures to completely ban all forms of online gambling activities, eradicating them from the Philippines.
Additionally, Villanueva also prioritizes anti-corruption in his legislative agenda. He proposes the establishment of an anti-corruption agency completely independent from the Presidential Office and the administrative system, specifically responsible for handling high-level corruption cases. He believes that the existing anti-corruption mechanisms are institutionally constrained and require legal means to ensure their independence and effectiveness, thereby restoring public trust in the government.
Villanueva states that he will fully promote the passage and implementation of these bills during his term, especially the "living wage" and "anti-gambling bills," which will be treated as the highest priority. He emphasizes: "If the country cannot guarantee the most basic rights to survival and social justice, then all development is just empty talk."
Currently, these ten bills have been formally submitted to Congress for deliberation, and whether they can be successfully passed will become an important indicator of the reform strength of this session of the Philippine Congress.
