Senate majority to identify legislative agenda

The Senate majority will hold a caucus tomorrow to identify its legislative agenda for the rest of the Second Regular Session.

Meanwhile, the Senate and House members of Laban are now firming up at least three banner issues that they hoped would be included in the core reform agenda of the last 18 months of the Arroyo administration.

The Senate majority caucus will tackle the measures recommended by the Makati Business Club and by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

Senate President Franklin Drilon said he informed the majority senators, in the presence of President Arroyo, last Thursday afternoon of the five priority measures agenda proposed by the MBC, on top of which is the amendment of the Anti-Money Laundering Law.

"MBC briefed us on the seriousness of the Financial Action Task Force in its effort to have a uniform international standard insofar as the banking practice is concerned," Drilon said.

The Senate committee on banks headed by Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. is already sponsoring on the floor the proposed amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Law.

Drilon said the FATF gave the Philippines a Feb. 23 "absolute deadline" for passing the proposed amendments.

"If we don’t follow, then there will be consequences on our overseas Filipino workers," he added.

The other measures proposed by the MBC are the removal of the documentary stamp tax on secondary trading transactions, the Securitization Act, Corporate Recovery Act, and tax exemptions in the operations of foreign currency deposit units and offshore banking units.

The eight priority bills identified by LEDAC in its meeting last Jan. 3 were the Securitization Act, amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Law, use of farm land as collateral, the grant of franchise for the National Transmission Corp., indexation of sin taxes, the absentee voting bill, the 2003 national budget, and the anti-terrorism bill.

"We will finalize our agenda during the majority caucus on Monday," Drilon said.

This will be followed by a LEDAC meeting on Tuesday, to finalize the legislative agenda in coordination with the House.

"I am hopeful that with the manifest cooperation that Laban has made public, we would be able to work fast on these vital measures," Drilon said.

Sen. Edgardo Angara, president of Laban, has reiterated the readiness of the opposition party to undertake critical collaboration with the Arroyo administration.

Angara stressed that this has been the policy of Laban since 2001 when it assumed the role of fiscalizer.

"I hope Laban will put its heart into our legislative agenda and help us push the measures which the people need," Drilon said.

Angara, meanwhile, said Laban’s "banner issues" would be topped by a "dramatic proposal" for the education sector.

Angara and House Minority Leader Carlos Padilla said education is the area where the Arroyo administration can leave its greatest policy legacy.

Their proposal involves the training and retraining of teachers to create a core pool of talented math and science teachers, and providing public schools with computers and modern libraries.

"We should also put up modern science laboratories and develop a total learning package that would make the quality of basic education competitive to that of progressive Asian countries," Angara added.

He lamented that the Philippine per capita investment in the education sector is barely P400, one of the lowest in Asia.