Mikey files first bill as security guards' representative

By Jess Diaz (The Philippine Star) Updated November 25, 2010

MANILA, Philippines – The eldest son of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo presented his first proposed legislation yesterday as a lawmaker representing security guards and tricycle drivers.

Ang Galing Pinoy Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo filed House Bill 3713 seeking to amend Republic Act 5487, which regulates the organization and operation of security agencies, by extending the validity of the licenses of security guards from two years to three years.

Arroyo said personnel of security and detective agencies “undergo rigid training, attend seminars and take various examinations in order to qualify for the issuance of a regular license.”

“Significant expenses are entailed by security guards for purposes of meeting the requirements for licensing,” Arroyo said.

“Thus, in order to provide meaningful assistance to security guards, it is proposed that the validity of regular licenses be increased to three years from the date of issuance. This will forestall any additional expenses for the renewal of such licenses,” he said.

Arroyo is the lone author of Bill 3713. His mother, now congresswoman of Pampanga’s second district, has already introduced several proposed pieces of legislation with her younger son Diosdado or Dato, representative of Camarines Sur’s new second district, as lone co-author.

Mrs. Arroyo succeeded Mikey, who gave way to his mother. He was still eligible for a third term, which would have been his last as a district representative.

However, he managed to continue his membership in the House as a nominee of the party-list group Ang Galing Pinoy.

Leftist organizations questioned the nomination, claiming the former president’s son was not by any standard qualified to represent a marginal sector or group like one claiming to be composed of security guards and tricycle drivers.

But the Commission on Elections (Comelec) ruled that Mikey Arroyo was qualified to represent Ang Galing Pinoy, reasoning out that a party-list nominee does not have to be poor or marginalized like the sector he is representing.

Mikey’s critics have appealed the ruling with the Supreme Court, where the case is still pending.

Like Mikey, his brother Dato managed to continue his membership in the House of Representatives.

Dato was representative of Camarines Sur’s first district before Congress split it by creating a new second district, where he ran and won in last May’s elections.

Then senator and now President Aquino questioned before the Supreme Court the creation of the new district, citing the fact that the division of the original first district did not meet the constitutional requirement that each legislative constituency should have a minimum population of 250,000.

Mr. Aquino invoked the decision of the high court in the case of Malolos City in Bulacan, in which the tribunal ruled that the law separating Malolos from the first district was unconstitutional since the city did not meet the Constitution’s minimum population requirement.