House may hold more sessions on priority bills

MANILA, Philippines - Leaders of the House of Representatives are studying the feasibility of holding plenary sessions from Monday to Friday to ensure the passage of priority bills before the 2016 election fever sets in.

The House might implement the extended sessions next week starting at 4 p.m., just like the regular sessions from Monday to Wednesday, according to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II.

Belmonte, Gonzales and other House leaders met with Senate President Franklin Drilon yesterday to finalize their list of priority bills to be passed by the end of the year.

The House aims to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law by the end of the month or before the proposed P3.002-trillion national budget for 2016 reaches the plenary.

Chances of approving the bill will be slim if it is not passed as planned, as the House will have to prioritize plenary debates on the proposed budget.

Other priority bills are the creation of the Department of Information and Communication Technology, amendment to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law, amendments to the Revised Penal Code and amendments to the Customs and Tariff Modernization Act.

Congressional leaders have agreed that the sessions will continue until Oct. 9 to make way for the filing of certificates of candidacy of those running for elective posts.

Sessions will resume on Nov. 3 up to Dec. 18.

By February, Congress will go on recess as the 90-day campaign period for the May national and local elections will start.

The Senate and the House will convene as the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) shortly after the elections to canvass the presidential and vice presidential votes until May 29, according to Drilon.

‘Congress has enough time’

Malacañang believes Congress has enough time to act on the Bangsamoro Bill, the proposed 2016 national budget and other priority bills if lawmakers will focus and commit to pass them.

Some lawmakers, including Senate committee on local government chairman Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has filed a substitute Bangsamoro Bill, said they were open to the idea of holding special sessions to ensure that plenary debates on the bill would be finished before the filing of certificates of candidacy next month.

House of Representatives ad hoc committee on the Bangsamoro Bill chairman Rufus Rodriguez has given up hope that the bill would be enacted during the term of President Aquino.

The issue on quorum was a factor for the delay in the passage of the bill, he added.

Marcos said the holding of special sessions would be up to the discretion of Drilon and Belmonte.

Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Secretary Manuel Mamba agrees that leaders of Congress would have to decide on special sessions, although lawmakers still have plenty of working days to pass the Bangsamoro Bill, according to Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr.

“They have the whole month of September, the whole month of October,” he said.

“There are also (session days) in November, they only have All Saints’ Day break until almost half of December.”

The administration has been continuously coordinating with the leaders of Congress to have the Bangsamoro Bill passed, Coloma said.

“So we are hoping that during this period they will give importance to our priority bills like the General Appropriations Act and the Bangsamoro Basic Law,” he said.

Marcos proposed a substitute bill because he believes provisions in the original bill will violate the Constitution.

They could not rush the debates and would need time to listen to all suggestions and amendments from his colleagues, he said.

Marcos said the proposed national budget for 2016 might also affect the immediate passage of the Bangsamoro Bill.

The Senate has a tradition to stop all pending bills to give way for the plenary debates on the proposed P3.002-trillion national budget for next year.

In an earlier interview, Belmonte said the pace of debates on the Bangsamoro Bill was also slow in the House of Representatives because members were nowhere to be found every time it was their turn to ask questions.

It would be better for House members not to have themselves listed among those who would ask questions so they would not delay the passage of the bill, he added.

September is National Peace Consciousness Month

Meanwhile, a series of activities has been set for the celebration of September as National Peace Consciousness Month, presidential adviser on the peace process Teresita Deles said yesterday.

The series of events is intended to make the Filipino people more informed about the peace that the administration is pursuing with anti-government groups like the MILF, she added.

The celebration of National Peace Consciousness Month focuses on continuing the legacy of peace and progress through unity, Deles said.

The Filipino people must be united to ensure peace and the country’s progress, she added.

September was proclaimed as National Peace Consciousness Month through Proclamation No. 675 issued in July 2004.

The intention of National Peace Consciousness Month is to “instill greater consciousness and understanding among the Filipino people on the comprehensive peace process to strengthen and sustain institutional and popular support for and participation in this effort, as well as in the global movement spearheaded by the United Nations to promote a culture of peace based on nonviolence, respect for fundamental rights and freedoms, tolerance, understanding and solidarity.”

To start the celebration, the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) opened an information exhibit at Trinoma in Quezon City last Sept. 1, featuring the envisioned Bangsamoro region and its people and the campaign for the passage into law of the Bangsamoro Bill. The exhibit runs until Sept. 7.

An information exhibit on the bill will be held from Sept. 14 to 17 at the House of Representatives.

Last Sept. 1, ABS-CBN News Channel put the Bangsamoro peace process and the bill in the spotlight in the one-hour forum “Peace and Justice: A Beyond Politics Special on the BBL.”

Government peace panel chairman Miriam Coronel-Ferrer, Marcos and Rodriguez discussed the current status of the Bangsamoro Bill in the two houses of Congress and what steps the government and MILF peace panels are taking to ensure the peace while deliberations on the bill are going on.

To give the Filipino people an opportunity to learn more about the impact of peace on the country’s development efforts, OPAPP will also hold a media forum on Sept. 18, Deles said.

Experts will attend the forum, particularly Socio-Economic Planning Secretary and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director-general Arsenio Balisacan and an official of the World Bank Asia-Pacific Division invited to speak on the socio-economic aspect of peace promotion. – Paolo Romero, Aurea Calica, Jose Rodel Clapano