Noy eyes closer work ties with Congress

MANILA, Philippines - With three years left in his term, President Aquino asked his party mates yesterday to help ensure a closer working relationship between Malacañang and the 16th Congress to push his reform agenda.

The President issued the call during a lunch he hosted at the Palace for newly elected Liberal Party (LP) members of the House of Representatives.

Last week, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry sought the passage of economic measures, particularly the anti-trust bill, to level the playing field, attract job-generating investment and sustain economic growth.

Some quarters are also pushing for Charter change to make the country more business-friendly and competitive in luring foreign direct investment. The Philippines has one of the lowest levels of FDI in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

There were few details available about the topics at yesterday’s lunch, but the President said that among other things, he would explain his decision to veto scores of local bills.

Critics have said the veto showed a lack of coordination between Malacañang and Congress on the legislative agenda.

As he headed for the lunch, the President told reporters in a chance interview that he invited his party mates to the Palace to congratulate them for their election victory.

“Number two, it behooves the entire mechanism of government to have a smooth working relationship with the coequal branches,” the President said.

Aquino earlier rejected proposals to reorganize the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) headed by Secretary Manuel Mamba, saying the office is not to blame for his decision to veto certain bills.

“We want to maintain the relationship in the first three years of our administration with this incoming Congress,” the President said. “Maybe we’ll be mapping out partly the agenda, and consolidating and organizing ourselves.”

Aquino said the bills that he vetoed had “killer provisions” that could have made their implementation “impossible.”

Asked about the performance of Mamba, Aquino replied, “It is not the review on personalities per se but on the system of how do we effectively communicate our issues and our concerns.”

The President stressed that the executive is not a party in the bicameral conference committee, which threshes out the final version of bills that pass both houses.

While acknowledging the noble intent of several of the vetoed bills, the President said the challenge is to come up with better versions that would redound to the benefit of a majority of the people.

Aquino vetoed at least four bills of national importance: the Magna Carta for the Poor, the Centenarian Act, the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons Act, and a measure seeking to remove the height limits for policemen, firemen and jail guards.

He also vetoed scores of local bills, mostly seeking the conversion of municipal, city and provincial roads into national roads.

Some of the authors of the bills vowed to re-file them in the incoming 16th regular session of Congress.

Closer coordination

Meanwhile, Sen. Franklin Drilon and Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III pushed for closer coordination between Malacañang and the Senate in the incoming Congress to minimize if not prevent the President from exercising his power to veto bills.

Drilon and Sotto said they expect the regular Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meetings to ensure that the time and effort spent in approving bills would not go to waste.

Sotto said that he raised the matter during the executive committee meeting of the LEDAC two weeks ago, which was presided over by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and attended by Mamba.

“While the veto is part of our system of check and balance, we must have closer coordination so as to avoid the need for the President to invoke that constitutional power,” Drilon said.

The Senate will hold two more legislative sessions tomorrow and Thursday to act on a number of bills set for approval on third and final reading.

Thirty-six committee reports are up for third and final reading but Sotto said only a few, or those that need not go through the bicameral conference committee, would be approved.

Drilon said only the bicameral conference committee report on the amendments to the Juvenile Justice Law is likely to be approved on third reading. With Marvin Sy