PRESIDENT Duterte certified as urgent three priority economic bills seen to boost foreign investments, create jobs and ensure the country’s economic recovery.
In his April 12 letter to Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Duterte stressed the need to immediately enact the pending economic bills—amendments to Public Service Act (Senate Bill 2094), amendments to Foreign Investments Act (Senate Bill 1156), and amendments to Retail Trade Liberalization Act (Senate Bill 1840).
With the urgent certification, a bill need not undergo the three-day rule between the second and third reading, with approval on both levels done within the same day.
Duterte said the enactment of these bills will “address the immediate and continuing need for legislative reforms to provide a more conducive investment climate, increase job opportunities, foster more competition, and further spur the country’s economic growth,” according to a copy of the President’s letter shared by Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III with reporters on Tuesday.
Dominguez earlier urged Congress to pass these “doable” reforms to further open up the economy and help the country attract more foreign direct investments.
These three economic bills were among the 12 that the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) tagged as top priority measures which are targeted to be passed by the end of the second regular session in June 2021.
Apart from these, there are 13 other bills that Ledac wants to be passed within this year.
The three economic priority bills newly certified as urgent by the President were pending second reading in the Senate when Congress went on recess in late March. The House of Representatives has already passed all of these measures on third and final reading.
The pending Senate bill amending the 84-year-old Public Service Act aims to improve the quality of public services and goods by encouraging more competition.
Sen. Grace Poe said earlier the measure aims to clarify the ambiguity between “public utility” and “public service” and limit the term “public utility” to three services: distribution of electricity; transmission of electricity; and water pipeline distribution and sewerage pipeline systems.
Poe added that all other “public services” that are not natural monopolies will be freed from foreign equity restriction but not from any of their other responsibilities as public service providers.
Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon had said passage of these three bills, all meant to liberalize the economy to attract more business, removes the justification of the so-called Economic Cha-cha being pushed in the House, to supposedly free up restrictive economic provisions in the 1987 Constitution.
Meanwhile, the Senate bill on Amendments to the Foreign Investment Act aims to reduce the minimum employment requirement to 15 from 50 direct local hires for small- and medium-sized domestic enterprises established by foreign firms with paid-in capital of at least $100,000.
Lastly, the Senate version of the bill amending the Retail Trade Liberalization Act also seeks to further relax foreign restrictions by removing investment categories and setting an across-the-board minimum paid-up capital investment equivalent of $300,000 in Philippine peso.
Under the current Retail Trade Liberalization Act, enterprises with a paid-up capital below $2.5 million in peso equivalent are reserved exclusively for Filipino citizens and corporations wholly owned by Filipino citizens.
Image credits: MALACANANG PHOTO
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