Senate fails to pass sin tax reform bill

MANILA, Philippines – Neither the Reproductive Health (RH) bill nor the sin tax reform bill were passed in the Senate during the plenary debates Monday.

Senator Franklin Drilon had previously said he was confident that the sin tax bill would be passed by Monday after senators proposed their individual amendments.

Drilon, the principal sponsor of the measure, said that the bill has been certified as urgent by President Benigno Aquino III, which meant it would not have to comply with the Senate’s three-day rule. Bills have to pass through three reading on three separate days before they can be passed.

At the start of the proceedings however, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile made a motion to take up the RH bill to denounce perceptions he was delaying the bill.

In a previous session, Senator Pia Cayetano, the principal sponsor of the bill, made an appeal to tackle the RH bill since there were only a few senators left to conduct interpellations: Senators Vicente Sotto III, Ralph Recto, and Enrile. She said it would not take more than 30 minutes to have the senators introduce their amendments.

Enrile however said that he was not yet ready to introduce his amendments. When asked by Cayetano when he would be ready, Enrile simply said “I do not know when I will be ready.”

In his privileged speech Monday, he said that he was now ready to introduce his amendments and made a motion that they take it up “before all other pending matters.”

Sotto objected to the motion saying they need to finish the deliberations on the sin tax reform bill so that the 2013 budget could be taken up in succeeding sessions.

Recto added that he was also ready with his amendments to the RH Bill. Sotto insisted that he will only be able to propose amendments after all other senators have finished with their interpellation, which means the bill would not be passed within the day yet, he said.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago echoed the motion of Enrile to vote on the matter.

The Senate voted 11-3 in favor of taking up the RH bill first, after which Enrile proceeded to give his amendments to Cayetano.

The deliberation on the RH bill was later suspended and the Senate proceeded to discuss the sin tax measure.

The sin tax measure seeks to collect an additional P40 billion to P45 billion in additional revenues from increased taxes on tobacco and liquor products. The Senate has been conducting extended sessions the past week in order to speed up its passage.

Consideration of the bill was suspended around 7 p.m. The sin tax bill would be taken up again on Tuesday’s session, Drilon said.