Speaker seeks closer coordination between Congress, Malacañang

MANILA, Philippines - Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. called yesterday for closer coordination between Congress and Malacañang in crafting laws in the aftermath of the successive presidential vetoes of several key measures.

President Aquino on Friday ordered his Cabinet to actively participate in hearings in the House of Representatives and the Senate on pending bills so they could give their inputs and relay Malacañang’s position on certain issues.

Aquino has vetoed at least four bills of national importance and scores of measures of local scope in the last few months, including the Magna Carta for the Poor, the Centenarian Act, the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons Act, and the bill removing the height limits for policemen, firemen and jail guards.

Some of the authors of the bills vowed to refile them in the 16th Congress.

“Simple changes in the language will do it,” Belmonte said, referring to efforts to have the bills enacted into law once they are amended.

The House leader said Cabinet officials attending the hearings should also make their positions clear during deliberations, so that lawmakers can be guided on how the bills would be written.

“We will insist that relevant Cabinet members in their testimonies before the committee give definite, not ambivalent answers,” Belmonte said.

He said the chamber would have to meet with Malacañang officials on the administration’s objection on some of the vetoed bills.

Belmonte said the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) should tighten its work in monitoring bills, from committee deliberations to their approval in plenary and in the bicameral conference committee, until they land on the desk of the President for signing.

“PLLO should be more vigilant in monitoring the bills in Congress so that better coordination would reduce the vetoed bills,” he said.

The PLLO, headed by Secretary Manuel Mamba, has a staff of 40 and is supposed to coordinate with senators and congressmen in crafting legislation.

Meanwhile, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman chided Sen. Francis Pangilinan for making it appear that he was to be blamed for the veto of the Centenarian Bill.

Aquino said the 75 percent discount on sales of goods and services to centenarians was too big.

Lagman earlier said Pangilinan’s insistence on increasing the discount from the original 50 percent led to the veto.

“As a veteran legislator, I must call a spade a spade. Sen. Francis Pangilinan did not only copy my House Bill No. 834 on granting a P100,000 cash gift to centenarians together with other benefits and privileges, but to make his copied bill appear a bit different, he increased to 75 percent the discount on sales of goods and services to centenarians without providing for any tax credit or deduction for establishments to recoup the huge discount,” Lagman said.