The Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) and the House of Representatives Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) are launching the revitalized Electronic Resource Base for Legislation (ERBL) Project on Wednesday, October 17, 2012.
Conceptualized in 2000, the ERBL project primarily involves the setting up of the ERBL website (http://www.pids.gov.ph/erbl/). This website is envisioned to be the primary reservoir of information for the legislators and the public by linking legislation with available research resources.
The ERBL is a web-based facility that aims to contribute to strengthening the quality of Philippine legislation in terms of substance and content.This objective will be pursued in three ways: first, by providing basic information on major economic legislation being considered in Congress; second, by directly supplying inputs from research that are relevant to these bills; and third by encouraging more discussion and debate on the bills through the posting of position papers and blogs on these bills.
These goals are derived from PIDS`and CPBRD`s respective institutional mandates. PIDS is the government`s foremost policy think tank envisioned to help government planners and policymakers in the executive and legislative branches. Its research programs and agenda are aligned with the national development plan. On the other hand, CPBRD is the research arm of the House of Representatives that provides technical service in formulating national economic, social, and fiscal policies.
Since the project`s inception, over 300 priority bills have been posted on the website. In March 2011, PIDS and CPBRD both agreed that the facility needs to be updated to keep up with the developments relating to legislative information. For one year and a half now, the teams have been working to reactivate and re-launch the ERBL facility.
The revitalized and improved ERBL website will be up in the coming days. It provides access to full textcopies of major bills filed in the congress and their status in the legislative process. In particular, the website will feature the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) bills,the legislative agenda of the Speaker of the House, and bills in support of the Philippine Development Plan. Aside from this, the website has a link to PIDS` Socioeconomic Research Portal for the Philippines (SERP-P), a database of research studies conducted by PIDS and its collaborators. The new ERBL will also include the position papers submitted by various interest groups and stakeholders on these bills. Finally, comments on the bills can be posted by the general public through a moderated blog.
To jumpstart this renewed and improved partnership between PIDS and CPBRD, a forum will be conducted Wednesday afternoon at the House of Representatives. It will be attended by PIDS President Josef T. Yap and CPBRD Director-General Romulo E.M. Miral, Jr. Congressmen Sigfrido R. Tinga, Albert Raymond Garcia, Cesar Jalosjos, and other legislative staff and officers will participate in the forum.
In addition, the event is also organized in honor of Professor Emmanuel `Manoling` Q. Yap, the eminent nationalist who was the first head of the Congressional Economic Planning Office(CEPO), which was established on September 2, 1968 by Speaker Jose B. Laurel, Jr. The CEPO served the technical needs of both houses of the Congress of the Philippines when it was first established. Thus, the current CPBRD draws its historical origins from the CEPO.
The first death anniversary of Professor Emmanuel Yap was observed last September 26, 2012. PIDS President Josef T. Yap is a son of the late professor.
For more information on this, you may contact Ms. Christine Ruth Salazar of PIDS at 893-9585 loc. 4063 or the PIDS Public Affairs Division at 982-4059.
PIDS, House to launch revitalized Electronic Resource Base for Legislation Project
