Aquino expects RH passage, 12 other bills next year

President Benigno S. Aquino III. EDWIN BACASMAS

President Benigno Aquino III expects the passage of 13 priority measures, including the controversial reproductive health bill, before the 15th Congress ends next year.

The President made the remark on Thursday amid the apparent preoccupation of both the Senate and the House of Representatives with Chief Justice Renato Corona’s impeachment trial and Albay Representative Edcel Lagman’s pointed observation that legislative work was being sacrificed to the four-times-a-week hearings.

“Our expectations are that priority measures will still be passed before the current Congress ends,” the President said in a text message relayed through his deputy spokesperson, Undersecretary Abigail Valte.

It was his reply to a question on whether he would rally his allies in Congress, especially those not directly involved in the impeachment trial, to buckle down to their legislative work.

Daily roll calls

As though in quick response, House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales said that starting next week, there would be daily roll calls in the chamber to ensure sufficient attendance at the thrice-a-week sessions.

Among the priority measures that the Aquino administration submitted to Congress in August 2011 is the proposed Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Law, of which Lagman is one of the authors and its staunchest defender in the House.

Valte said those concerned should heed Mr. Aquino’s remark. “Our fellow workers in government know what their duties are, what our duties are, and we believe that they should take these reminders,” she said at Thursday’s news briefing in Malacañang.

“[T]hey know their mandate from our countrymen, especially our congressmen who are answerable to a specific set of constituents,” she added.

Sparse attendance

Lagman warned in a statement issued on Wednesday that “the Aquino administration’s inordinate focus” on Corona’s impeachment trial had adversely affected the economy and urgent legislative work.

The former House minority floor leader said that since Corona’s impeachment trial started on January 16, attendance in the House had “dwindled to less than the requisite quorum.”

He also noted the “sparse attendance” in committee hearings.

“The collateral damage of the impeachment proceedings on governance and legislation is becoming inevitable,” Lagman said.

He added: “While the national growth plunged to 3.7 percent last year, which is much slower than the 7.6-percent gross domestic product expansion in 2010, and the number of hungry Filipinos escalated to 4.5 million from 4.1 million last September, the Aquino administration has marshaled its time and resources to an agenda of ousting the Chief Justice.

“The implementation of national policies to address poverty and hunger may be stalled and the bailout of the fledgling economy may fall at the roadside as all guns of the Aquino administration are aimed at the Chief Justice’s head.

“Meanwhile, major legislation stagnates as congressional prosecutors and senator-judges have assumed new roles outside of their traditionally mandated legislative functions.”

Text brigade

On the phone Thursday with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Gonzales said he had instructed officials to remind colleagues that attendance would be taken when the House convenes again on Monday.

“I’ve already instructed our offices to [organize] a text brigade. Starting Monday, there will be a roll call,” he said.

Asked if a roll call would also be conducted before the start of sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, Gonzales said that was the plan.

The House occasionally takes attendance only on the first day of the week. In subsequent sessions, the plenary just takes up where it left off in the previous day.

Empty seats

Gonzales said attendance dwindled last week because some lawmakers learned that there would be no roll call and thus no longer showed up at the session hall.

Others arrived at the Batasang Pambansa compound but chose to stay in their offices, hence the empty seats in the cavernous session hall.

He said attendance was not usually a problem in the 15th Congress.

Gonzales issued the assurance that the House would devote time to priority legislation, and said the proposed whistle-blower’s protection act and antiterror financing bill might be approved next week.

The appropriations committee is also scheduled next week to take up 15 priority measures that have been approved by other committees but have funding requirements, he said, adding that they could be read on the floor by Wednesday.

Contentious bills

Gonzales, however, pointed out that certain bills were moving slowly because of their “contentious” nature, and not because of any distraction from Corona’s impeachment trial.

He cited the reproductive health bill, which has generated heated debates in and out of Congress. “Even without the impeachment [trial], that is contentious,” he said.

The bill prescribing sin taxes has also been hampered by policy differences at the committee level, but Gonzales said it was expected to move now with a new chair of the ways and means committee in place.

The Freedom of Information bill is also expected to move now that Malacañang has submitted its version of it, he added.

These are the Aquino administration’s priority measures:

• Responsible Parenthood, Reproductive Health and Population and Development Bill

• Amendments to the Human Security Act (or Antiterror Law)

• Amendments to the People’s Television Network Law

• Amendments to the rural electrification program

• Restructuring of the excise tax on alcohol and tobacco products

• Provisions for the delineation of the specific forest limits of the public domain

• Grant of broader protection for consumers

• Protection of individual personal data in information and communications systems in the public and private sectors

• Reorganization of the Philippine statistical system

• Imposition of stiffer penalties for stealing or tampering with government risk reduction and preparedness equipment, accessories and other facility items

• Provisions for additional benefits and protection to house help

• Expansion of the coverage of the science and technology scholarship program

• Amendments to the Twenty-Percent Balanced Housing Law.

Originally posted at 06:18 pm | Thursday, February 02,  2012