Zubiri vows to shepherd 20 priority bills

MANILA, Philippines — With Congress set to resume its second regular session on Monday, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri has vowed to shepherd 20 priority measures to enactment by yearend.

Zubiri said he made the commitment to President Marcos during the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council meeting in the Palace last week.

“We can have them passed. By December of this year, they need to come out – 11 of these bills are already pending with the Senate. We are looking after this August and September, they’ll be ready,” Zubiri added.

The bills include the amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law/Public-Private Partnership Bill, as well as the establishment of National Disease Prevention Management Authority, Internet Transactions Act/E-Commerce Law, Medical Reserve Corps and the Virology Institute of the Philippines.

Also considered priority measures were the Mandatory ROTC and NSTP, Revitalizing the Salt Industry, Valuation Reform, E-Government/E-Governance bill and the Ease of Paying Taxes, National Government Rightsizing Program and a Unified System of Separation/Retirement and Pension of MUPs.

Zubiri also identified other priority measures as LGU Income Classification, Waste-to-Energy Bill, New Philippine Passport Act, Magna Carta for Filipino Seafarers, National Employment Action Plan, Amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act and amendments to the Bank Secrecy Law.

8 bills passed

The Senate president said the chamber passed eight priority measures during the first regular session, including the General Appropriations Act or the national budget.

For this year, the proposed national budget for FY 2024 is set at P5.768 trillion, which is 9.5 percent higher than this year’s P5.268-trillion appropriation.

“This past year, we passed eight priority measures of the President. Of course, he is asking for a lot more in the next five years. When we passed the national budget, that’s a lot,” he said.

He added that Congress also passed the SIM Card Registration Act, Maharlika Investment Fund and the Emancipation of Farmers.

While the Senate reported that senators filed a total of 2,264 bills, 849 resolutions and 11 concurrent resolutions, Zubiri pointed out that “since time immemorial, the Senate has not shortcut the passage of any bill. This is where all proposals are debated.”

He recalled his experience as member of the House where “the debate at the committee level takes a long time, but when it comes to the plenary, the process is almost quick.”

“There is almost no debate in the plenary and the law is just mentioned and voted on. Except for the very controversial ones. That’s the style in the House,” he added.

“In the Senate, it’s the other way around. At the committee, the process is quite quick. When it comes to the plenary, everyone wants to debate the sponsor. And we don’t stop that. We do not prevent our colleagues from debating the sponsors of these proposals,” he said.

“We give them leeway when it comes to interpellations and amendments, thus the process takes longer. The beauty of it, in the Senate, we want to make sure that the measures we passed will stand the test of constitutionality and will benefit the majority of Filipino people,” he pointed out.

Listening

Zubiri also praised President Marcos for being a leader who listens.

“He always asks me for advice on agriculture. I am an agriculturalist by profession. He is not a dictator. He listens. He absorbs and is hardworking. He is already in office at Malacañang early. He works the whole day,” Zubiri said.

Zubiri cited the lower inflation as an example of Marcos’ good performance.

“As a matter of fact, inflation dropped from as high as eight percent to now 6.1 percent. So almost a two percent drop in the inflation rate. We are looking hopefully, we can lower it by four percent. And we saw that our economy grew a little,” Zubiri noted.

“The President is doing a lot of good things, there are hiccups along the way. There’s a lot here that the President doesn’t control – the war in Ukraine, that’s why we had problems with grains. The prices of food all over the world suddenly increased. The global economies we are trading [with] have had a collapse of global trade because of the war in Ukraine,” he explained.