Fighting lobbyists

As a veteran lawmaker, Sen. Cynthia Villar could say “been there, done that.” Being among the “richest” members of Congress, plus her reputation for being feisty and bullheaded, makes big-time lobbyists stay out of her sight. Thus, it is easy for Senator Villar to point to “lobbying” in Congress as the biggest factor in the passage of bills to either get clogged up or fast-tracked in the legislative mills.

Now on her second and last term as senator, she is one of the “graduating” members of the 24-man Senate. She bows out also as the chairperson of the Senate committee on agriculture, food and agrarian reform and the Senate committee on environment and climate change. She is swapping places with her daughter, Rep. Camille, currently House deputy speaker, representing the lone congressional district of Las Piñas City. Camille, on the other hand, is running for the Senate under the administration-backed Alyansa ng Bagong Pilipinas.

Senator Villar admitted her biggest frustration is seeing well-crafted laws and their desired beneficial effects diluted by the implementing rules and regulations (IRR). Thus, Senator Villar vows to pursue possible amendments of these laws in her comeback bid in the 20th Congress.

“As I seek to once again represent my hometown, Las Piñas, in the House of Representatives, I intend to build on my work in the Senate, focusing on the achievement of goals for agricultural competitiveness and environmental protection,” Villar promised. To date, she is credited for enactment of landmark statutes, including 114 laws establishing multi-species marine hatcheries in different parts of the country.

During our Kapihan sa Maynila Bay news forum last week, Villar deplored how the IRR drafted and carried out by the Executive branch undermined the spirit and intent of the laws approved by Congress. She bewailed several laws where the IRR blatantly changed the law and undermined its original purpose.

“The IRR of laws are typically prepared by the government agency or agencies tasked with implementing the law,” the senator explained. “The essence of many laws has been compromised because of the IRR. The law has been overshadowed and replaced by the IRR.”

“That’s the problem. We passed the legislation, but the implementation is very bad,” she rued.

Aa a classic example, Villar cited Republic Act (RA) 10845 or “An Act Declaring Large-Scale Agricultural Smuggling Act as Economic Sabotage, Prescribing Penalties…” approved in 2016. She noted with dismay not one single big smuggler of rice, onions and other crops illegally brought into our country in large volumes has gotten convicted up to now.

Obviously, it has not been implemented in accordance with the law as evidenced by the continuing entry of smuggled agricultural products and the struggles of Filipino farmers, livestock raisers and fisherfolk.

Upon consulting with her own legal and legislative staff, she disclosed they re-crafted this law and approved RA 12022, or the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act. President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) signed it in October last year that specified smuggling, hoarding, profiteering and engaging in a cartel as economic sabotage.

“That’s why I made it clear in the law that there is no need for an IRR. The law itself serves as the IRR,” she cited. Also as added safeguard, she plans to institute congressional oversight body in every law that will regularly check their implementation and enforcement by the Executive branch. Villar emphasized the need for stricter oversight by them in Congress to ensure that laws are implemented as written, without unnecessary alterations that ease or make regulations inutile.

The 74-year-old lawmaker has authored, co-authored and sponsored the enactment of laws during her total of 12 years in office in the Upper Chamber. She topped the 12-man Senate elections in 2019. Before she first got elected to the Senate in 2013, Villar was Las Piñas City congresswoman for three consecutive terms, from 2001 to 2010.

She could have been the first female Senate chief in the 19th Congress. With her usual candor she riposted: “Matigas daw ulo ko.”

When the current Congress resumes sessions this June 2, Villar identified as her top priority to ensure the passage into law of a bill she authored creating a livestock, poultry and dairy industry development and competitiveness fund.

As proposed in this bill, the fund will be pooled from tariff collections on imported livestock, poultry and dairy, and can be used to help farmers recover from the effects of African swine flu (ASF) and bird or avian flu that devastated our local hogs and poultry industries.

“There is a need to rehabilitate the livestock industry. That’s why I wrote this bill. The idea is to stop the coming in of animal diseases,” she stressed.

The bill was patterned after RA 11203, or the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (RCEF) that imposed 35 percent tariff on all imported rice. Like the RCEF, she explained, the tariff collections were supposed to be plowed back by the Department of Agriculture (DA) to benefit the rice farmers with machinery, seeds and other basic farming assistance. In this way, the funding won’t be dependent on the General Appropriations Act (GAA), she stressed.

The new bill was unanimously approved by the Senate 23-0 before Congress adjourned for recess last Feb.5. But the counterpart measure remained stuck in the Lower House. She urged House lawmakers to just adopt in toto her bill to finally get it passed since it has been languishing in Congresses past.

Pending enactment of this bill, Villar pushed for the construction of a first border inspection facility which will have a laboratory and examiners to inspect all imported livestock, poultry and dairy animals coming in the country.

Villar admitted she lobbied to allot P2 billion in the meantime under the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) under the DA’s budget two years ago. “Until now, we don’t have such a facility, so how can we stop diseases going into the livestock?”she said in exasperation. She conceded there might be pressure from those “lobbying” against it.

She is not daunted though in fighting lobbyists – in or outside of Congress.

Senator Villar is set to make a comeback at the House of Representatives in the 20th Congress.