Marcos to convene LEDAC before 2nd SONA

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos is scheduled to convene the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) to discuss the government’s priority bills weeks before his second State of the Nation Address.

The LEDAC meeting will take place tomorrow, according to a source from the Cabinet.

This was confirmed to The STAR by National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan in a text message yesterday.

“Yes, we’ll have one,” he said.

The LEDAC acts as a consultative and advisory body to the President on certain programs and policies. The President serves as the chairman of the council, which is composed of the vice president, Senate president, House speaker, seven Cabinet members, three senators, three House members and representatives from the local government, youth and private sector.

In his first SONA last year, Marcos identified a number of priority bills, including the National Government Rightsizing Program; budget modernization bill; the proposed Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery law; unified system of separation, retirement and pension; E-Governance Act; National Land Use Act; the third tax package or valuation reform bill; proposed Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act and the Internet Transaction Act or E-Commerce Law.

He also pushed for the proposed National Defense Act; mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and National Service Training Program (NSTP); measure seeking to establish a medical reserve corps and bills seeking to create the National Disease Prevention Management Authority, Virology Institute of the Philippines (VIP) and the Department of Water Resources.?Also included in his legislative agenda are the enabling law for the natural gas industry; amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act; amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer law and possible amendments to the COVID-19 Vaccination Program Act.

During a meeting in Malacañang last February, officials from the executive and legislative branches agreed to push for the passage of 10 priority measures by June 2.

These measures include the mandatory ROTC and NSTP, which has been certified as urgent by Marcos; the bill establishing the Maharlika Investment Fund, which only needs Marcos’ signature to be enacted; amendments to the law prescribing fixed terms for ranking military officials;  Build-Operate-Transfer law/Public-Private Partnership bill; Medical Reserve Corps bill; Philippine Center for Disease Prevention and Control bill; the bill establishing the VIP; measure condoning the unpaid amortization and interests of loans of agrarian reform beneficiaries; proposed Internet Transactions Act/E-Commerce Law, and the salt industry development bill.