Now they have time

It was bountiful harvest, metaphorically speaking, with three landmark laws recently produced by the 19th Congress. Last Monday at Malacañang Palace, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) signed them into law one after the other. Naturally, the key leaders and members from both chambers, including the respective authors and sponsors of the three laws, stood witness to the ceremonial signing rites at the Palace.

Signed into law were: Republic Act (RA) 12078, or the Amendments to the Agricultural Tariffication Act; RA 12079, or the Value-Added Tax (VAT) Refund Mechanism for Non-Resident Tourists Act and RA 12080, or the Basic Education Mental Health and Well-Being Promotion Act.

Cabinet members of PBBM led by his economic team were also in full force as their respective departments were among the implementing agencies for the three new laws.

As the principal author and sponsor of RA 12078, Sen. Cynthia Villar best described its enactment as an early Christmas gift to Filipino farmers and agricultural cooperatives all over the country. As chairman of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, Sen. Villar counts upon RA 12078 to effectively put out of business rice cartels.

This law authorizes the agriculture secretary to designate importing entities, except for the National Food Authority (NFA), to import rice to supplement the supply of rice and steady prices. RA 12078 now allows the NFA to sell rice buffer stocks to the public through Kadiwa ng Pangulo centers in areas experiencing rice supply shortages or extraordinary price increases.

Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. profusely thanked PBBM and Congress for amending the Rice Tariffication Law (RTL) under RA 12078. The new law extends the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) up to year 2031 and increased annual allocation to P30 billion from P10 billion. RCEF is composed of duties collected from imported rice. The DA chief vowed to use RCEF to bolster the country’s agriculture modernization projects nationwide.

Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Ralph Recto is optimistic about the Philippines’ economic prospects in 2025 with the enactment of these two key laws aimed at boosting the tourism industry and local spending as well as strengthening food security in the country. Recto clarified that RA 12079 is a priority reform bill pushed by the DOF despite it resulting in some revenue loss by allowing non-resident tourists to claim VAT refunds on locally purchased goods.

In fact, Recto claimed it was the DOF that introduced Section 112-A in the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) of the Philippines that now included this new provision. For now, the value of goods purchased should be equivalent to at least P3,000 per transaction. “With increased tourism spending, we will have higher revenues to collect and we can create more jobs, raise incomes and accelerate economic growth,” Recto pointed out.

Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Christina Garcia-Frasco likewise extolled RA12079 as it is seen to significantly boost tourism-related spending in the Philippines. Frasco called the VAT Refund Law for tourists a “game-changer” that strengthens the country’s’ position as a top global destination.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, chairman of the House committee on ways and means who shepherded approval in Congress of RA 12079, calculated the VAT refund mechanism will boost tourist spending by 29.8 percent. According to the DOT, shopping accounted for P137.4 billion in inbound tourism expenditure in 2023. Data from the DOF show that savings from the refund fully channeled into additional tourism spending may boost economic output by P2.8 billion to P4.0 billion annually.

The only non-revenue measure enacted, the school-based mental health law under RA 12080, targets to address the needs of our children to cope with the stress of school work, peer pressure, bullying and other stressors affecting the wellness of their young minds.

Sen. Win Gatchalian hailed the signing of RA 12080 as something that would increase learners’ access to mental health services. As the principal author and sponsor of this law, Gatchalian cited this new law mandated every public school to have a care center to provide school-based mental health services. “By ensuring the accessibility of mental health services, we can instill resilience in our learners, prevent suicides and make our schools safer,” the chairman of the Senate committee on basic education pointed out.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara agreed the new law could help students deal with the “unprecedented changes” in their environment that could be affecting their mental health. Data from DepEd showed that around 254 cases of suicide among grade school students were recorded during school year 2023-2024.

Nearly 1,500 students attempted suicide during the same period, about 1,078 of whom were in junior high school, 321 in senior high school and 93 in grade school. This is really a frightening trend of schoolchildren driven to suicide mode.

Through this new law, DepEd hopes to hire more than the current 4,000 guidance counselors in public schools to care for the mental wellness of over 23 million students nationwide.

So thank you, Congress, for these three new laws. Undertaking so many public hearings left and right, doing “inquiry in aid of legislation” took so much time of their lawmaking job. Our legislators became seemingly preoccupied with their investigations on the same controversies and scandals involving no less than Vice President Sara Duterte and her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte.

As it turned out, our senators and congressmen and congresswomen were working after all.

With the ink barely dry on these three new laws, PBBM convened at the Palace the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) with Senate President Chiz Escudero and Speaker Martin Romualdez, along with other key leaders of Congress and members of the Cabinet.

Wonder if the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte was even mentioned in passing? Just thinking aloud. A number of senators and House members earlier declared they simply have no more time for impeachment.

With many of the priority bills more or less done and the 2025 budget bill up for approval by PBBM, Congress may now have time for the impeachment of VP Duterte.