Senate passes barely half of Duterte’s priority bills

Vince Nonato | Malaya Business Insight | June 6, 2019

The Senate managed to pass only 15 of the 28 measures in the priority agenda of the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council for the 17th Congress.

High up in the list of the Duterte administration’s legislative disappointments is the amendment of the Constitution to pave the way for a shift to a federal system of government.

Only the House of Representatives approved Resolution of Both Houses No. 15 in December 2018 after a process criticized for its hastiness. Senators, however, refused to act at such a pace.

The legislative calendar of the 17th Congress officially ends on Friday.

The House of Representatives earlier said it managed to approve all measures included in President Duterte’s legislative agenda in just seven months since Speaker Gloria Arroyo assumed the House leadership last year.

At the Senate, three priority bills have advanced far enough to the plenary floor, only for progress to be stalled.

These are the Traffic and Congestion Crisis Act (Senate Bill No. 1284), which seeks to grant Duterte emergency powers as a shortcut for road infrastructure projects and a way to overhaul commuting routes. The bill made it to the floor for debates in December 2016, but did not move forward.

The Rightsizing the National Government Act (SB 1395) and the Budget Reform Act (SB 1761) met similar fates, as they remained pending second reading since March 2017 and March 2018.

Nine other priority bills never made it out of the committee level at all.

These are the National Land Use Act, the Land Administration Reform Act, the Forest Lands Limits Act, and amendments to the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law.

The proposed People’s Broadcasting Corporation Charter, which sought to replace the People’s Television with a more modern state network, also did not move forward.

Proposed amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law, the Government Procurement Reform Act, the Cybercrime Prevention Act, and the eight-decade old Public Services Act similarly stalled.

This was despite Senate President Vicente Sotto III saying that the chamber planned to approve SB 1754 — which seeks to tweak the outdated definition of “public utilities,” to narrow down the list of industries where the 1987 Constitution’s foreign equity restrictions would apply —within the last few weeks of the 17th Congress.

Instead, the Senate got preoccupied with another bill certified as urgent, though not included in the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council list — the bill increasing the excise taxes on cigarette products.

The House of Representatives notably matched the Duterte administration’s agenda better.

But, in the case of the Recoverable System Loss Act (SB No. 1623), the Senate was able to approve it on third and final reading, while the House did not.

Among the 13 priority bills passed by the Senate was the Security of Tenure and End of Endo Act, which is pending action by Duterte.

SOGIE BILL

Sen. Risa Hontiveros bemoaned the Senate’s failure to act on a bill prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression (SOGIE).

In a privilege speech during the last session of the Senate late Tuesday, Hontiveros said the Philippines has been left behind as other countries make progress in granting equal rights to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and asexual (LGBTIQA) community.

Although SB 1271 made it to the plenary as early as December 2016, Hontiveros lamented that it got stuck at the debate stage for the past three years.

“It was one of the first bills sponsored in 2016. Should we still debate about something as basic as equality? For three years, really?” Hontiveros said.

“We have been interpellating this bill for almost three years. At habang busy tayo sa kaka-debate, nagpapatuloy ang diskriminasyon (And while we are busy debating, discrimination continues),” she added.

She cited various incidents, including the suicide of a student bullied over accusations of being gay, schools forcing transgendered women to cut their hair to comply with the male dress code, or even barring them from attending graduation rites, and a gay teacher getting fired for dressing up as a bride outside work.

She also said LGBT people living with human immunodeficiency virus were disqualified from receiving health benefits, and couples could not claim social insurance benefits as well.

Hontiveros also mentioned President Duterte’s recent remark that he “cured” himself of being gay, implying that it is a disease.

“Yes, Mr. President, my dear colleagues, maybe we need a ‘cure.’ A cure for inequality, a cure for stigma and discrimination, a cure for bigotry and homophobia,” she said. “Even a cure for legislative inaction.”

Source: https://malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/senate-passes-barely-half-duterte%E2%80%99s-priority-bills