Coordination

Even if we take out the pork barrel, which amounts to tens of billions in public funds allocated to legislators to spend as they please, the process of legislation is still a costly one. It is made even more costly if there is breakdown in coordination with the executive branch, resulting in the veto of bills en masse.

The 16th Congress, which buckled down to work this week, will hopefully have a more efficient working relationship with the executive branch. The production rate of the 15th Congress was brought down by the fact that an unprecedented total of 72 completed bills were vetoed by the President. Each of these bills represent tens of thousands of legislator and legislative staff working hours invested crafting them — all for naught.

It might be unfair to apply rigid economism to measure legislative efficiency, by dividing the total cost of maintaining the Congress by the number of laws actually produced. Some laws are more important than others, after all. Nevertheless, for all its imperfections, this is the only available measure of efficiency.

From January to June this year, President Aquino vetoed a total of 68 completed pieces of legislation. In one day alone, May 15, the President vetoed an astonishing 54 completed bills.

Although the overwhelming number of these vetoed bills involved laws of local application, they nevertheless represent a huge amount of time invested in legislative work. Every committee hearing, every plenary session and every bicameral conference committee meeting represents expenditure of taxpayer money.

In a great number of cases, the vetoed pieces of legislation overlooked basic technical and policy considerations. Those things ought to have been cured at the committee level to avert the scandalous wastage of legislative resources.

For instance, one bill titled “An Act Strengthening the Career Executive Service” was vetoed April last year because the Chief Executive deemed it to be “in contravention of the Constitution.” That might have been pointed out by the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) at the first instance rather than allowed to progress through the legislative grist.

“An Act Revising the Charter of the City of Baguio” was vetoed January this year because it contained provisions that “impinged on the DENR’s exclusive mandate over control and supervision of alienable land and disposable public lands and run counter to laws governing the disposition of townsite reservations.” Furthermore, the proposed law runs counter to the Public Land Act mandating all proceeds from the sale of public land to go to the National Treasury and form part of the general fund rather than accrue to the account of the local government.

The oversight here is pretty basic. It should have been spotted at the onset.

We have all heard of the act repealing the height requirement for the uniformed services, vetoed last February. The proposed law was rejected because it turns out that the height requirement might be waived under certain conditions anyway, making the law unnecessary.

Then there is “An Act Providing for a Magna Carta of the Poor” that was vetoed last March because it would “wreak havoc on government’s existing and planned programs for the poor.” How could such an ambitious, and intrusive, piece of legislation progressed through the grist without the executive branch signaling its disagreement?

The role of the PLLO is not only to observe bills as they work through the congressional mill but to inform the legislators of reservations in the mind of the executive branch. It is the key agency that allows constant feedback between two independent branches of government.

Things get funnier as we plough through the dozens of laws of local application that were killed at the Palace in one fell swoop.

There is HB 2088, “An Act Granting Philippine Citizenship to Gulshan Bedi.” It was vetoed because Mr. Bedi is a respondent in cases involving malversation and estafa.

“An Act Converting the Sta. Fe – Casanayan Road in the Municipality of Pilar, Province of Capiz into a National Road and Providing Funds Therefor” was vetoed because the measure failed to comply with the DPWH’s Road Functional Classification Criteria. There are several bills of local application, well over half the total vetoed, rejected for the same reason.

We all heard about “An Act Honoring and Granting Additional Benefits and Privileges to Filipino Centenarians, Declaring the 25th of September as National Respect for Centenarians and for Other Purposes.” The measure was vetoed because the 75% percent discount on purchases made by centenarians was “exhorbitant.”

There is “An Act Protecting the Rights of Displaced Persons, Providing Penalties therefor and for Other Purposes.” This one was vetoed because it openly conflicts with the Constitution.

Another one, “An Act Granting Retirement, Health Care and Death Benefits to Professional Filipino Athletes Who Win World Championship Titles in International Professional Sports Competitions or in Other Equally Prestigious International Games and Providing Funds Therefor” was vetoed because “government lacks the necessary funds to grant the benefits mandated by the proposed measure.”

This one takes the cake: “An Act Renaming Southern Philippines Agri-Business and Marine and Aquatic School of Technology (SPAMAST) into Davao del Sur State College.” This school is located in the Municipality of Malita which is now part of the newly created Province of Davao Occidental. The proposed measure was vetoed because it runs ahead of a plebiscite for the new province. Imagine a Davao del Sur College located in Davao Occidental!

The sheer number of vetoed measures indicates not only poor coordination by way of the PLLO. It is likewise a measure of the recklessness by which the previous Congress enacted laws.