Posted on May 25, 2015 08:47:00 PM

I do not refer to the late Jesse Robredo but to his wife Leni. She is a first-time legislator who routed an entrenched political dynasty for the 3rd congressional district of Camarines Sur.
She works hard in her district and in the halls of Congress. She avoids attending international conferences, even if they are relevant to her work, because her priority is attending plenary sessions and committee meetings at the Batasan and immersing herself with her constituents, especially those in the remotest barangays.

She keeps away from the limelight, but not because she is a novice in Congress. That’s just the way she is. But staying out of the public eye is impossible since both the traditional and the social media love her.

She is too modest to show her credentials, and she lets her fellow legislators take credit for things that get done, even though her role in these instances was indispensable.

Although she prefers being in the background and working with a team, she can assert and take charge, if the situation calls for it.

In this regard, it is worth retelling a story I picked up from aBusinessWorld news item that came out on May 19 and headlined “DoF [Department of Finance], DTI [Department of Trade and Industry] settle dispute on tax breaks tracking.” The lead sentence is very factual, but it has a deeper meaning:

“Following a May 18 meeting presided over by bill author and Camarines Sur Rep. Maria Leonor Gerona-Robredo (3rd district), the two agencies found common ground on the proposed Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act (TIMTA), considered a priority reform measure by the Aquino administration, Congress, and business groups.”

That Rep. Robredo presided over the meeting that led to the finding of a common ground between the differing positions of the two departments implies that she took the lead in forging a consensus. In fact, something that was not reported in the news, Rep. Robredo was gently assertive and used her skill to persuade the different stakeholders to agree to a bill that contains the essential features to make the TIMTA effective.

Before this common ground was reached, the DoF and DTI were deadlocked with respect to the parameters of TIMTA. DTI’s previous stance was for limited disclosure of investments and incentives, essentially defeating the very purpose of the reform. No one, not even the Executive and House leadership, could break the impasse.

Moreover, DTI had its own bill, which challenges the DoF bill championed by Rep. Robredo. In my May 17 column, “Don’t have laws just for the sake having them passed,” I criticized the DTI version of the bill, which is House Bill No. 5537 authored by Rep. Rufus Rodriguez.

I said that the DTI-supported bill “contains a vague section that allows protection of the confidentiality of information as defined by the investment promotions agencies (IPAs). That only means having the status quo, in which the already opaque IPAs have the power to determine which information can be disclosed.”

I also wrote: “Add to this a similar provision that allows the IPAs to ‘evaluate and process investments and incentives data before submission to the National Economic and Development Authority.’ Similarly, the bill is silent on the disclosure of actual information on tax incentives given to particular firms. The allowed disclosure is limited ‘on a sectoral basis.’”

All these objectionable provisions are not found in the consensus bill. The consensus bill’s declaration of policy is “to promote fiscal accountability and transparency in the grant and management of tax incentives by developing means to promptly measure the government’s fiscal exposure on these grants and to enable the government to monitor, review and analyze the economic impact thereof and thereby optimize the social benefit of such incentives.” The bill has three important sections: (a) the publication and monitoring of tax incentives information; (b) the conduct of cost-benefit analysis on investment incentives; and (c) penalties for non-compliance with filing reportorial and filing requirements.

All’s well that ends well.

The consensus bill is worth supporting. We congratulate both the DoF and the DTI for agreeing to this consolidated bill. But the biggest credit goes to Rep. Robredo for breaking the deadlock and for having crafted a bill that binds the major stakeholders.

The firm and inspiring leadership of Rep. Robredo is a major reason we are confident that the TIMTA will pass. In the same manner, other transparency reforms she champions like the Freedom of Information bill will be won.

Who says an “inexperienced elected official” like Leni Robredo cannot lead the country?

Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III coordinates the Action for Economic Reforms.

 

by Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III

 

Source: http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=robredo&8217s-leadership&id=108523