Bills, bills, bills

Atotal of 20 legislative measures were adopted as common legislative agenda (CLA) during the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) convened by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. (PBBM) in Malacañang Palace last Tuesday. This was the second full meeting of the LEDAC that PBBM presided since he assumed office in June last year.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas was able to push LEDAC to include in the CLA their proposed bills on Bank Deposit Secrecy, and, the Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA). These two measures are in addition to the priority bills enumerated by PBBM during his first state of the nation address (SONA) before the 19th Congress in July last year.

Of the 20 bills, 18 were part already of the 42 priority legislative measures forged during the first LEDAC meeting of PBBM in October 2022. These are still pending in various stages at the legislative mills in both chambers of Congress and being set for approval before the end of this year.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri reported nine bills are pending on second reading and rest of the 26 bills are pending at the committee level – out of 35 measures listed in the CLA. At the House of Representatives, Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez reported to PBBM they have passed already on third and final reading 32 bills of the 42 priority measures from the first LEDAC measures.

From Malacanang’s inventory, of these 42 LEDAC bills, four were already signed into law. These were, namely, Republic Act (RA) 11934, or An Act Requiring the Registration of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM); RA 11935, or the Postponement of the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections; RA 11939, or the Amendments to the Fixed Tenure of Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff. And the latest one, RA 11593, or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act which mandated the write off unpaid loans of land reform farmer-beneficiaries, was signed into law by PBBM on July 6.

Before the sine die adjournment, two Congress-approved bills, namely, the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) Act of 2023; and, the Department of Health Specialty Centers Act, are still up for the President’s signature.

Five pending priority bills are already in advanced stages of the legislative process. These are, as follow: the Budget Modernization Bill; Amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA); Department of Water Resources; National Defense Act; and, Amendments to the Universal Healthcare Act.

Also in the “wish list” of LEDAC for passage into law later this year are the bills on National Government Rightsizing Program; Unified System of Separation/ Retirement and Pension of Military and Uniformed Personnel (MUPs); Local Government Unit Income Classification; Waste-to-Energy; New Philippine Passport Act; Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers; National Employment Action Plan; and, the Amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act.

Still going through the Congress gauntlet included the following bills: Amendments of the Build-Operate-Transfer Law/Public-Private Partnership; National Disease Prevention Management Authority; Internet Transactions Act/E-Commerce Law; Health Emergency Auxiliary Reinforcement Team (HEART) Act, or formerly Medical Reserve Corps; Virology Institute of the Philippines; Mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps and National Service Training Program; Revitalizing the Salt Industry; Valuation Reform; E-Government/E-Governance; and, Ease of Paying Taxes.

The other priority measures that remain pending in Congress are as follow: the Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA); National Land Use Act (NALUA); Enabling Law for the Natural Gas Industry; Apprenticeship Law, Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System (PENCAS); Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery (GUIDE); Free Legal Assistance for Police and Soldiers; Philippine Immigration; Comprehensive Infrastructure Development Master Plan; and, Magna Carta for Barangay Health Workers.

Several local bills apparently got prioritized also in the CLA. These included the Negros Island Region; Leyte Ecological Industrial Zone; and, the Eastern Visayas Development Authority.

Pursuant to Republic Act (RA) 7640, LEDAC serves as a consultative and advisory body to the President on priority bills that both Executive Department officials and lawmakers would agree to expeditiously ensure passage into law. Thus, top officials of both the Executive and Legislative branches of government jointly identify and choose a list of priority bills and later on certified as urgent administration measures.

Browsing through the CLA list, there is one glaring urgent bill that LEDAC did not even consider as urgent.

A landmark measure among the many bills swiftly approved at the Lower House last May 29 was House Bill (HB) 7819. With no negative vote cast, and zero abstention, 284 members of the Lower House approved on third and final reading the HB 7819, or the proposed Philippine Maritime Zones Act. HB 7819 seeks to define the breadth and depth of the country’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) as mandated in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

It was transmitted already to the Senate. The Senators could either totally adopt the House version, or pass their own counterpart bill.

Yet, there were so much noise the past few days leading up to the 7th anniversary of the country’s victory in the Arbitral Tribunal at The Hague. On July 12, 2016, the Arbitral ruling set aside Beijing’s nine-dash-line claims in South China Sea as inconsistent to the UNCLOS. Both the Philippines and China are UNCLOS signatory-countries.

As usual, it was observed with so much braggadocio talks from our country’s elected leaders and government officials about our West Philippine Sea (WPS) claims.

Ironically, it was not even among these bills, bills, bills considered nor discussed at the LEDAC meeting.