Vetoed bills

There is now a mad scramble among pro-administration lawmakers in the 17th Congress to postpone the coming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls scheduled on Oct. 31. The latest call came from no less than President Rodrigo Duterte in his extemporaneous remarks before government troops in yet another of his military camp visits last Friday.

At the 10th anniversary of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Eastern Mindanao Command in Davao City, President Duterte called for the postponement of the scheduled barangay and SK elections. The Commander-in-chief echoed his fears that his administration’s ongoing war against illegal drugs might be compromised by narco-politics money getting into the barangay and SK elections if held at this time.

More importantly, the President underscored the government does not have the “billions” of pesos needed to hold the barangay and SK polls. President Duterte assumed office in the middle of the year when the government’s budget was already half spent.

“Better hold it at a later date. We would rather use (the money) for the establishment of drug rehabilitation and treatment centers,” President Duterte pointed out.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) earlier estimated it would cost around P5 to P6 billion to conduct the barangay and SK elections because it would be on manual voting basis.

It was Comelec chairman Andres Bautista who first suggested the postponement of the barangay and SK elections during our Kapihan sa Manila Bay last May 25. It was three weeks after the results of the automated May 9 elections came in. Bautista justified his suggestion, citing “election fatigue” of the Filipino voters if there would be another elections taking place barely a few months after the holding of the national and local elections.

Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, however, immediately disowned the suggested postponement as nothing but personal sentiment of the chairman. Guanzon ranted the idea of Bautista merely reflected one commissioner out of the seven-man collegial body of the Comelec.

Actually, it was merely an off-the-cuff suggestion of the Comelec chairman during our weekly breakfast forum. Citing it requires legislative approval, Bautista told us it will be up to the 17th Congress to consider such proposed postponement.

Over the weekend, leaders of both chambers of the 17th Congress explained another reason for the postponement of the barangay and SK elections. Senate president Aquilino Pimentel III and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez were one in saying the holding of the polls as scheduled would prevent the freshly installed President Duterte from appointing new government officials.

This is because one of the banned activities during the election campaign is appointment, promotion, transfer or removal of government officials and other state personnel.

The 61-day old administration is in the process of installing into office the appointees of President Duterte. The Chief Executive issued Memorandum Circular 4 directing all appointees of former president Benigno “Noy” Aquino III to vacate their posts.

Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ismael Sueno also backed calls to postpone the barangay and SK elections. Sueno expressed concern over the resulting further delays in infrastructure projects of the government if there would be another elections held in our country this year. The former South Cotabato governor pointed to the construction ban that Comelec imposes during election campaign period.

In last May 9 elections, Comelec construction ban was from March 26 up to May 8. And with barangay/SK elections, there would be another ban when there were already delayed infrastructure projects, Sueno rued. The Comelec has issued new directive to impose the construction ban from Oct. 21-30.

These are valid concerns. With only two months left before the barangay and SK elections, it behooves lawmakers to pass this bill before it’s too late.

This brings to mind the need for the sitting President to revive the existing mechanism that ex-president Aquino did not utilize and resulted in a total of 83 Congress-approved bills being vetoed during his six-year term in office.

This is the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), which was created by law as the body chaired by the President and mandated to, among other things, come up with a common legislative agenda. Ex-president Aquino convened it only once. Under this law, the President was empowered to convene LEDAC at least quarterly.

Once convened, President Duterte could immediately agree with key leaders of Congress and members of his Cabinet to prioritize passage of the bill resetting the barangay and SK elections and other priority administration bills as common legislative agenda.

From official data culled from the Office of the President, a total of 859 bills were approved for the entire six years of the Aquino administration as submitted to him by the 15th and 16th Congresses for approval and signature into law.

Of this total, 563 bills were produced by the 15th Congress and the balance of 296 bills were passed during the 16th Congress. From the 563 bills that went through the legislative mills of the 15th Congress, 485 were signed into law by P-Noy.

Notably, of the total 563 bills acted upon by the 15th Congress, 78 of them were vetoed by P-Noy. And five vetoed in the 16th Congress.

As provided under our country’s 1987 Constitution, a bill neither signed nor vetoed by the President lapses into law after one month from the time it was submitted to the Office of the President.

The bulk of these RAs were bills of local application ranging from new engineering districts to reclassification of local secondary and tertiary schools into national high schools, colleges and universities to renaming of roads, highways, towns and municipalities etc.

Two of these local bills were not signed at all by P-Noy but were allowed to lapse into law. The lapsed laws were the renaming of two major highways in Iloilo after the late parents of P-Noy, namely, slain Sen.Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and the late President Corazon Aquino. It is called delicadeza.

On the other hand, how do you call these vetoed bills of P-Noy?