23 bills certified urgent by Duterte passed into law

MANILA, Philippines — Out of the 27 measures certified as urgent by the Duterte administration, 23 have become laws, data from the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) showed.

Nearly all of the bills certified as urgent by former president Rodrigo Duterte have been passed by Congress but only 36 of his 75 priority measures, proclamations and international agreements were enacted into law or have secured the concurrence of lawmakers, according to the PLLO.

If the President certifies a measure as urgent, Congress may approve it on second and third reading on the same day.

As of June 27, three urgent measures that have not been enacted into law are the bill strengthening the financing system for agriculture, fisheries and rural development in the Philippines; amendments to Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016; and the proposed act institutionalizing anti-drug abuse councils in every local government unit.

One of the items certified as urgent by Duterte was the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade agreement among members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand. The agreement has to be ratified by the Senate before it takes effect in the Philippines.

Earlier this month, President Marcos ordered agriculture officials to come up with a memorandum enumerating the advantages and disadvantages of RCEP so the government could decide on whether it would push for its ratification.

Meanwhile, the measure that aims to strengthen the financing system for agriculture, fisheries and rural development was ratified by both chambers of Congress last May and was transmitted to Malacañang for the President’s signature last June 27.

Under the Constitution, the President has 30 days to sign or veto a bill transmitted to his office. If the President does not act on the measure within 30 days, it would lapse into law.

The amendments to the Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016 were approved by the House of Representatives but remained pending in the Senate civil service committee.

The bill institutionalizing anti-drug abuse councils in every local government unit was approved on final reading by the House but did not secure second reading approval in the Senate.

The rest of the priority bills were bypassed by Congress, including measures on property valuation system of local government units; the Department of Disaster Resilience bill; internet transactions act; government financial institutions unified initiatives to distressed enterprises for economic recovery act; passive income tax and financial intermediary tax reform; amusement tax on digital platform and offshore betting stations of licensed cockpits; stiffer penalties for illegal drag racing; the rental housing subsidy bill; medical reserve corps act; establishment of a Disease Prevention and Control Authority; the Bureau of Immigration modernization act; the advance nursing education act; creation of the Boracay Island Development Authority; institutionalization of e-governance; the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines bill; establishment of evacuation centers in every city, province and municipality; increasing the share of local governments in the national internal revenue taxes; magna carta of barangay health workers; granting of amnesty to former communist rebels; amendments to the Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016 and the bill seeking to institutionalize anti-drug abuse councils in every LGU.

Other priority bills bypassed by the previous Congress were the bills on amendments to the Bank Secrecy Law; creating a unified pension system for the military and uniformed personnel; the Department of Water Resources bill; Water Regulatory Commission bill; national land use act; government rightsizing bill; magna carta for barangays; reimposition of death penalty by lethal injection for heinous crimes and plunder; the mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps bill; national defense act; national housing and development bill; creation of the Environmental Protection and Enforcement Bureau; increased penalties for malversation of public funds; creation of agency for maritime workers and seafarers; free legal assistance to military and uniformed personnel and increase of minimum access volume of pork meat by 350,000 metric tons.

Last May, former Cabinet secretary Melvin Matibag said priority bills of Duterte that were bypassed by Congress would be endorsed to the Marcos administration.