Drilon: Congress has 2 years to pass administration bills

Sen. Franklin Drilon. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The next Congress will have to pass the Aquino administration’s priority measures within the next two years as the third year will already be too politically charged because of its proximity to the 2016 presidential elections, Sen. Franklin Drilon told reporters on Thursday.

“We hope to pass it by the end of the second regular session of the 16th Congress, realizing that by the third regular session, 2016 will already be in sight and therefore, it becomes more difficult,” said Drilon, who is widely believed to be the next Senate President.

Drilon, a member of the ruling Liberal Party, made the remarks a few days before the opening of the next Congress on Monday.

He mentioned a host of legislative measures that he said he will suggest to his colleagues to be prioritized.

“These bills are being prioritized in order to improve our investment climate so that we can achieve an inclusive growth,” Drilon said.

“We have to improve our policy framework to attract more investments and achieve our inclusive growth target, meaning lower the unemployment rate, lower the number of families who consider themselves poor,” he added.

Among these measures are the rationalization of the fiscal incentive act, passage of the amendments to the mining law in order to address the excise tax schedule and a tax incentive, monitoring and transparency act.