YEARENDER: A ‘very prolific year’ for the Senate

MANILA, Philippines — In the year about to pass, the Senate exerted effort to assert its independence in conducting inquiries on issues that hounded the Duterte administration while supporting legislative initiatives.

As of December, the Senate has approved 95 bills, which were passed into law since the start of 2018, while 85 other enrolled bills await President Duterte’s signature.

Nineteen other bills are pending in the bicameral conference committee – a body composed of delegates from the Senate and the House of Representatives – and 45 others were approved on third and final reading by the chamber.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III credited “the experience, cooperation and camaraderie of senators” for what he described as the chamber’s “highly efficient performance” this year, which saw the institution successfully working on a record number of landmark and much-sought after bills.

“2018 has been a very prolific year for the Senate, in terms of the number of bills that we had passed into law, along with those pending in the advanced stages of legislation, and the quality and importance of these laws. It is all to the credit of the entire Senate as an institution,” Sotto said.

“Swift action was taken by the Senate without sacrificing the keen and prolonged debates on most of these very important bills,” he said.

Former Senate president Juan Ponce Enrile recently criticized his former colleagues for doing legislation on a “coffee table,” a description roundly disputed by incumbent senators.

“The senators, from both the Senate Majority and Minority blocs, have been very cooperative and active in relation to our legislative work,” Sotto said.

Based on data on the legislative performance of the Senate from 1987 up to the present, “the rate of passing bills this year is among, if not, the most prolific in the Senate’s recent history,” he added.

Among the Senate bills that became law this year are the Bangsamoro Organic Law, Philippine Identification System Act, Filipino Sign Language Act, National Payment Systems Act, Personal Property Security Act and the Kalusugan at Nutrisyon ng Mag-Nanay Act.

Major enrolled bills awaiting Duterte’s signature include the proposed Revised Corporation Code of the Philippines, Universal Healthcare Program Act, the bill on Mandatory PhilHealth Coverage for all Persons with Disabilities, Social Security Act of 2018, HIV/AIDS Prevention Act, amendments to the charter of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Mobile Number Portability Act, Expanded Maternity Leave Act and the bill creating the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development.   

Other important measures pending in the bicameral conference committee include the Energy Virtual One-Stop Shop Act and the bill expanding the supplemental appropriations for fiscal year for patients in relation to the Dengvaxia vaccine controversy. 

Federalism, TRAIN

Senators drew flak for passing the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or TRAIN law, which was largely blamed – along with depleted supply of cheap rice from the National Food Authority and rising oil prices – for the spike in inflation since it took effect at the start of the year.

However, members of the Senate were also among the first in government to call for the TRAIN’s suspension as early as March and faster roll-out of fuel and cash subsidies for the poor and public utility vehicle drivers.

Toward the latter part of the year, Senators Francis Escudero, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV and Joseph Victor Ejercito filed separate resolutions asking Malacañang to suspend the next round of increases on excise taxes on diesel and gasoline to be implemented on Jan. 1.

The call was at first heeded by economic managers, who later backtracked, citing the tapering inflation figures in the third quarter of the year.

Not all measures pushed by the administration were backed by the Senate, including the shift to federalism pushed by Duterte since he assumed office in July 2016.

Citing lack of time and the need for thorough consultations, senators did not rush deliberations on proposals to amend the Constitution to shift the country to a federal system as approved in the House of Representatives and proposed by the Malacañang-backed consultative committee.

The second TRAIN package, touted by the Department of Finance to rationalize incentives, remained pending with the committee on ways and means, chaired by Sen. Sonny Angara, as it is feared to drive away existing investors because of the expected loss of government perks.

Leadership change

On May 21, then Senate president Aquilino Pimentel III stepped down and relinquished the helm of the chamber to then majority leader Sotto following weeks of speculation and meetings among senators.

The turnover was said to be part of a “term-sharing” agreement between Pimentel and Sotto during the early part of the 17th Congress or in mid-2016 supposedly to allow the former to concentrate on his reelection campaign.

Pimentel denied there was such an agreement but a resolution signed by 15 out of the 17 members of the majority bloc apparently indicated some degree of dissatisfaction by his colleagues with his leadership style.

Replacing Sotto as majority leader was Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri while Pimentel was left with the chairmanships on the committees on trade, commerce and entrepreneurship and electoral reforms and people’s participation.

Probes

The Senate conducted investigations on controversies that dogged the administration.

One of them, the series of smuggling of tons of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu through the Bureau of Customs (BOC), conducted by the Blue Ribbon committee, started in late 2017 and ended only early this month.

At the center of the probe were former BOC chiefs Nicanor Faeldon and Isidro Lapeña that some senators wanted charged but were only appointed to other posts.

The chamber also conducted inquiries into the alleged conflict of interest of Solicitor General Jose Calida after his family-owned security agency bagged contracts in government; the P15-billion Korean frigate acquisition deal; and the entry of the third telecommunications player into the country among others.

‘Arrest’

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV found himself staying at the Senate for nearly the entire September after Duterte issued Proclamation 572 revoking the amnesty granted to him in 2011, which exposed him to arrest orders by courts that reopened his rebellion and coup-related cases.

The Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 150 issued last Sept. 25 an arrest warrant for rebellion but being a bailable offense, the senator posted a P200,000 bond.

Makati RTC Branch 148, where Trillanes also has coup-related case, denied the Department of Justice motion to have him arrested, prompting the senator to decide to go home.

The senator said he had no intention of evading arrest but his stay at the Senate was only to exhaust all available legal remedies.

 Gringo to DICT

 Duterte’s formal appointment of Sen. Gregorio Honasan to head the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in late November meant the Senate will soon be left with only 22 senators.

Then Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano was appointed as foreign affairs secretary in 2017 while Sen. Leila de Lima, although still in the chamber’s roster, remains detained at Camp Crame.

Honasan, who currently chairs the committee on national defense and security, is expected to assume the post within the first half of next year after meeting some legal requirements for the post.