An administration-controlled Congress had less than a handful of laws of national scope to boast of in its first 365 days.
Last year, the first laws that bore the current President’s signature were the SIM Registration Act, which mandates all mobile device users to have a registered subscriber identity module card, and the postponement of the scheduled barangay and Sangguniang Kabataang officials’ election from December 2022 to October 2023.
During the last month of 2022, the 2023 national budget detailing where and how P5.268 trillion would be spent was signed and sealed by the President. It reflects the optimism of economic growth as the country emerges from the scars of a pandemic handicap.
In July, technically the start of the second year of the BBM administration, two more laws were passed. The first one made possible the condonation of debts owed by approximately 600,000 farmers from arrears on awarded lands under the 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.
The second law, signed just a few days ago, called for the establishment of the country’s first sovereign wealth fund, now better known as the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), purportedly to finance close to 200 identified flagship projects that had been approved by the National Economic Development Authority.
Both recently signed laws would certainly take extra time in the forthcoming speech of the President on Monday before a joint Congress and the Filipino people. The debt condonation law, which absolves over P58 billion of famers’ unpaid loans, is something that the beneficiaries can really be thankful for.
The MIF passage, of course, is a feather in the cap of our elected officials who have shown immense loyalty to the President. Its exceptionally fast processing from the House to the Senate and finally to the desk of the President, despite the warnings of caution from many sectors, reflects on the ability of the legislature to quickly pass laws to ingratiate themselves to the President.
While the Senate was able to muster the necessary instruments to ratify the Philippines’ joining of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement as an ASEAN member just three months ago, this will also be one of the more applauded feats to be mentioned by the President during next week’s SONA.
Proposed laws
So that’s where the BBM government now stands as it glides into its second year. Not given too much attention during his first year were the more than 20 other priority measures that were mentioned by the President through his first year in office, including during his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) in 2022.
At various stages of deliberation by either the House or Senate, or both, are the proposed rightsizing of the national government, budget modernization, e-governance, national land use, real property valuation reform, and the passive income and financial intermediary taxation. All of these were initiated by the previous government whose timetable, unfortunately, had been disrupted by the COVID lockdowns.
A few other notable bills still pending are the proposed unified system of separation, retirement, and pension for the military and uniformed personnel; the establishment of a national disease prevention management authority, creation of a water resources department, enabling law for the natural gas industry, amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law, and a law to strengthen the Maritime Industry Authority’s regulatory functions.
At the bicameral stage are several legislative proposals, purportedly nearing agreement and soon to be sent to the President for his signing into law: a magna carta for barangay health workers, as well as Filipino seafarers, amendments to the Passport Law, and the establishment of regional specialty hospitals.
Yes, our lawmakers have really so much more work to go through, and with the upcoming deliberations for the 2024 national budget coming up, it seems they will have to work 24 hours a day to be able to get through all the necessary hearings and deliberations.
Abnormal climate changes
Among the many priorities that the President outlined in last year’s SONA, the need for food security resonates consistently. Attention to this is forced time and again by the successive news reports of extreme weather disturbances happening in many parts of world.
Many more developed countries have become powerless to respond to climate forces that have brought about deadly rains or heat waves. Almost daily, record amounts of rainfall or scorching temperatures are being reported in regions of the world.
More governments are being forced to accept that a worsened climate change is upon humanity, and that disaster preparedness can no longer be simply measures about responding to dangers, destruction, and loss of lives that flooding or droughts bring.
Recent extraordinarily heavy monsoon rains in South Korea for over a week, for example, have already brought the death toll to double digits. The complete submerging of an underground tunnel in two minutes has forced the country’s government to rethink its once-vaunted disaster and preparedness response.
The Northern Hemisphere, on the other hand, is engulfed in a sea of deadly heat waves that has caused extensive forest fires affecting even cities and heatstroke for a population unprepared to cope with temperatures well beyond what the human body can tolerate.
The Philippines may today be enjoying relatively less harsh weather conditions compared to what other parts of the world are experiencing, but our archipelagic paradise is not immune to sudden climactic changes. This early, the government should seriously rethink mitigation measures in the event of any worsening weather conditions.
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