Aquino to push for 10 economic bills in new Congress

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) - President Benigno S. Aquino III will propose at least 10 bills to answer key economic concerns of both the government and the private sector when a new Congress opens this month, a senior government official said today.

Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Cesar Purisima said that the economic bills include Amendments for the Build-Operate- Transfer Law or Republic Act No. 7718, the Rationalization of the Mining Fiscal Regime, the Rationalization of the Fiscal Incentives Law, the Tax Incentives Monitoring and Transparency Act (TIMTA) and the Customs Modernization and Tariff ACT (CMTA).

Other measures to be pushed were Amendments to the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) Charter; and further Amendments to the Anti- Money Laundering Act; the Removal of Investment Restrictions in Specific Laws cited in the Foreign Investment Negative List (FINL); Amendments to RA 8974 otherwise known as the Act to Facilitate the Acquisition of Right-of-Way, Site or Location for National Government Infrastructure Projects and For Other Purposes and Amendments to the Cabotage Law.

Purisima explained that amendments in the BOT law will accelerate the public-private partnership (PPP) program by directly addressing obstacles and issues encountered in the implementation.

The president is expected to include in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 22 the priority bills that his administration wants to be passed during the remaining three years of his six-year term.