A LEADER of the House of Representatives said Congress has enough time to pass the 25 items on the Common Legislative Agenda (CLA) of Congress and the Executive Branch before the election period.
House Ways and Means Chairman Joey Sarte Salceda said majority of these bills were already approved by the lower chamber on the final reading.
“We have enough time to complete all our legislative priorities. We should not worry about the coming election season. There’s plenty of session time between today and COC [certificate of candidacy] filing. We are getting paid by the people to work until end of term, so we should work until end of term. That’s what the supermajorities in both houses are for,” Salceda added.
Salceda said that his committee will urgently take up any measure in the CLA that is automatically referred to his panel.
“As principal author of much of the CLA, I welcome the promotion of these bills by both Congress and the Executive. Everything is quickly moving. Just this week, the House committee on health approved the CDC bill, which I wrote personally. I thank the Congressional leadership and the Executive Branch for the trust,” he said.
“My assurance is that anything that has to go through my committee will be approved on time. In fact, all the tax measures in the CLA were already approved by my committee even before the Ledac set the deadline. So, on my end, things will move without delay,” he added.
The lawmaker also said that the approval of new tax measures that have no impact on the broad population is crucial.
“The Senate, I understand, is hearing POGO taxes and taxes on offsite betting stations tomorrow. They will be considering the House versions as base versions. I’m always ready to go on bicameral conference committee proceedings on these bills. They are short, so I expect the Senate to finish them quickly,” Salceda added.
The solon also hopes that the rest of the tax reforms could be completed this year.
“I think the real property valuation and assessment reform will be very critical to pass this year. Together with the PPP Framework which I am writing in TWG right now, it will help us build infrastructure faster because we can solve right-of-way issues quicker,” Salceda added.
As for the Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery Act (Guide), Salceda believes the bill will work best if the government will release the funds for credit programs under Bayanihan 2.
“The funds for government lending have not yet been released. GUIDE will work best if that is released as soon as possible,” Salceda added.
The CLA includes 12 items slated to be enacted by June 2021. These include GUIDE; the third and fourth packages of the government’s Comprehensive Tax Reform Program, or the Valuation Reform and Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation measures; amendments to the Public Service, Retail Trade Liberalization and Foreign Investments laws; Rural Agricultural and Fisheries Development Financing System Act; Creating a Medical Reserve Corps Act; Creating a Disease Prevention and Control Authority Act; Imposing Amusement Tax on Digital Platform and Offshore Betting Stations of Licensed Cockpits; Establishing the Tax Regime of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators; and Strengthening Local Government Participation in National Development by Increasing the Share of Local Government Units in the National Internal Revenue Taxes. Of the 12, nine have Salceda as the principal author.
The other 13 bills, for enactment by December 2021, are:
• Creating a Department of Overseas Filipinos Act
• Creating a Department of Disaster Resilience Act
• Creating a Boracay Island Development Authority Act
• Creating a Unified System of Separation, Retirement and Pension of the Military and Uniformed Personnel Act
• National Land Use and Management Act
• Internet Transactions Act
• Magna Carta for Barangay Health Workers Act
• National Housing Development Act
• Expanded Solo Parents Welfare Act
• Modernizing the Bureau of Fire Protection Act
• Modernizing the Bureau of Immigration Act
• Amending/Repealing RA 10192, or the Continuing Professional Development Act of 2016
• Reviving the Death Penalty by Lethal Injection for Crimes specified under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
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