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A FRESH LIST of 13 priority bills was announced yesterday by Malacañang, with President Benigno S. C. Aquino III expressing confidence that many would have been signed into law by July next year.
The list includes “sin” tax reforms — which Mr. Aquino said would raise P60 billion in additional revenues — and the contentious Responsible Parenthood bill. Dropped after initially being added last week was the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, one of the president’s campaign promises.
The new priorities were approved by the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), which convened for the second time this year in Malacañang. A meeting last February led to the endorsement of an initial priority list of 23 measures, three of which have so far been passed by Congress and signed into law by the president.
Mr. Aquino, who said the Palace proposed the 13 bills “because we really believe that they are needed to run this country better,” told reporters he expected “by the next SONA (State of the Nation Address) we will be reporting a lot of these as actual laws”.
The president’s annual SONA is delivered during the fourth Monday of July when both the House of Representatives and the Senate reconvene after a summer break.
Congressional leaders did not give an approval timeframe, however, only saying that the bills would be given a “fair hearing”. Observers, meanwhile, questioned some of the Executive branch’s choices, describing the list as not particularly aligned with development goals.
The 13 measures are as follows:
• the restructuring of excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco products;
• the Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health, and Population and Development bill;
• a measure protecting individual personal data in both government and private sector information systems;
• an Act reorganizing the Philippine Statistical System;
• an Act expanding the coverage of the science and technology scholarship program;
• amendments to the Urban Housing and Development Act of 1992 mandating socialized housing equivalent to at least 20% of the total condominium/subdivision area or project cost;
• stiffer penalties for stealing or tampering with state-owned risk reduction and preparedness assets;
• additional benefits and protection for househelp;
• amendments to Presidential Decree 269 (Rural Electrification Program) whereby cooperatives will get permanent tax exemptions;
• a measure providing for the delineation of specific forest limits;
• broader protection for consumers via changes to the Consumer Act of the Philippines;
• changes to the Human Security Act of 2007, particularly with regard to notification provisions and guaranteed indemnities; and
• amendments to the People’s Television Network-Channel 4 charter to ensure the state-owned network’s long-term viability.
“We would look at them very, very closely … we will give every bill a fair hearing and pass them as soon as possible once we have studied them,” Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told Palace reporters following the over four-hour LEDAC meeting.
“In the case of the RH (Reproductive Health) bill, we cannot assure that we will pass a version … It will take a full-blown debate,” he added.
House Speaker Feliciano R. Belmonte, Jr., meanwhile, pointed out that 14 out of the 23 bills in the earlier priority list had been “approved” or were “on the verge of being approved” in his chamber.
“Insofar as the House is concerned, we will continue what we have always advocated, let’s have every aspect of the law discussed, let it reach the point where we actually vote on it,” he added.
Mr. Aquino noted that deliberations on “sin” tax reforms and the RH bill would particularly be contentious given strong industry and religious objections, but stressed that approvals would benefit both society and the economy.
Changes to the taxation system for alcohol and tobacco products have not prospered in Congress, attributed to strong industry lobbying. The proposed reform basically involves automatic adjustments to the prices — currently fixed at 1996 levels — used in determining the tax.
The RH bill, meanwhile, has been scored by the religious groups and the Catholic Church, which is against artificial means of contraception. Mr. Aquino, however, claimed that concerns had been addressed via 10 amendments.
Proponents of the measure lauded the president for showing “political will.” The RH bill, recently sponsored in the Senate, has led to heated debates at the House.
Overall, however, political analyst Ramon C. Casiple called the new LEDAC list “disappointing”.
“The LEDAC bills are expected to complement the development plan and address urgent situations. With the exception of the RH bill, the ones listed yesterday are not only too safe but senseless,” he said in a telephone interview.
Makati Business Club Executive Director Peter A. Perfecto, for his part, said there would be “raised eyebrows”.
“We’d like to understand why they were prioritized; the RH [bill], that’s great, but why not the FoI Bill? … we thought it would be part of this round already,” he said in a separate telephone interview.
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Source: Business World, Aug. 16, 2011
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