A LEADER of the House of Representatives on Sunday said the lower chamber will maximize its time to approve several measures, including the P401-billion Bayanihan 3 and the economic Charter change, before Congress adjourns sine die this week.
However, a leader of the opposition said including the economic Charter change is a futile exercise, wasting precious time of lawmakers, since the Senate would never approve the initiative.
House Majority Leader Martin G. Romualdez of Leyte said the leadership under Speaker Lord Allan Velasco will work double time to expedite the approval of its priority legislative measures aimed at strengthening the country’s economy and protecting Filipinos from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We resume session on Monday with a full plate of priority bills scheduled for plenary deliberation before we adjourn sine die this week,” Romualdez, chairman of the House Committee on Rules, said.
The Congress is set to take a sine die adjourment this week and will return on July 26 for the opening of the third regular session and last State of the Nation Address of the President.
“Speaker Lord Allan Velasco wants to place in the front burner the passage of the proposed Bayanihan to Arise as One Act or the Bayanihan 3 and the economic Charter change (Chacha) under Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 2 on third and final reading,” Romualdez said.
‘One-two punch’
Deputy Speaker Bienvenido Abante Jr. described the passage of the Bayanihan 3 and economic Cha-cha as a “one-two punch to address the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Abante explained that Bayanihan 3 addresses these concerns by providing P2,000 cash assistance, emergency aid to affected households, wage subsidies to workers, assistance to displaced or disadvantaged workers, support for the agri-fishery sector, medical assistance to indigents, and wage subsidies for qualified workers in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
After overcoming the pandemic, measures will then be needed to help further promote economic activity, boost the economy, and generate jobs. This, said Abante, is where amendments to the economic provisions of the 1986 Charter come in.
‘Dead in water’
However, Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Ray Villafuerte has said the House leadership would just waste scarce time of the chamber should it go ahead this last session week on giving its final nod to Speaker Velasco’s initiative on Cha-cha, considering that senators appear in no mood to pursue constitutional reform in this 18th Congress.
“Why fritter away the House’s precious time this last session week prior to adjournment on passing Speaker Velasco’s RHB 2 on third and final reading, when it seems certain Cha-Cha doesn’t have a ghost of a chance of happening in the Senate between now and next year?” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte said RHB 2 is “practically dead in the water” as key Senate leaders—among them Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Sen. Grace Poe, who chairs the Committee on Public Services—have separately shot down this proposal to amend the restrictive economic provisions of the 1987 Constitution as soon as the House had passed it on second reading.
He said “a more pragmatic and faster route to attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows is for both the House and the Senate to fast-track committee and plenary deliberations on three investor-friendly amendatory bills that President Duterte had certified as urgent measures, and which Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Trade and Industry Ramon Lopez both endorsed in a recent hearing of the House constitutional amendments panel.
These three measures deemed likely to attract FDIs once enacted into law by the President are those proposing revisions to Commonwealth Act No. 146 or the Public Service Act (PSA), Republic Act (RA) No. 7042 or the Foreign Investments Act (FIA) of 1991 and RA 8762 or the Retail Trade Liberalization Act (RTLA) of 2000.
Villafuerte said the President’s decision to officially endorse the three economic bills in lieu of RHB 2 is a clear signal that Malacañang does not regard Cha-Cha as the silver bullet that would address the country’s relatively modest FDI inflows despite its prepandemic status as one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies with a two-decade streak of uninterrupted growth.
For Villafuerte, the amendatory bills to the PSA, FIA and RTLA will “complement the Duterte administration’s earlier stimulus measures that will help reinvigorate the economy and return it to its pre-pandemic growth trajectory. These three priority bills will liberalize the economy, attract more FDIs and create more jobs.”
These three measures are immediately doable, Villafuerte noted, compared to Cha-cha, as presented by RHB 2.
For 3rd reading
Meanwhile, Romualdez said the House is also committed to pass on third reading these measures:
■ House Bill (HB) 9087 or An Act Granting Survivorship Benefits to the Surviving Legitimate Spouse and Dependent Children of a Deceased Retired Member of the National Prosecution Service
■ HB 9072 or An Act Providing for a Free Annual Medical Check-Up for Filipinos
■ HB 9144 or An Act Establishing Greater Responsibility and Accountability from Private Employment Agencies,
Amending for the Purpose Republic Act 10361, Otherwise Known as the Batas Kasambahay
■ HB 9175 or An Act Providing for the Permanent Validity of the Certificates of Live Birth, Death, and Marriage
Issued
■ HB 9182 or An Act Declaring August 30 of Every Year as National Press Freedom Day
■ HB 9269 or An Act Providing for the Publication of Laws in Print or Online Version of the Official Gazette and of a Newspaper of General Circulation
■ HB 9183 or An Act Changing the Composition of the Advisory Committee of the National Council for Children’s Television
■ HB 9205 or An Act Establishing the Agriculture Information System in All Cities and Municipalities
■ HB 9061 or An Act Providing for a Physician’s Act Repealing for the Purpose Republic Act No. 2382, As Amended, Otherwise Known as the Medical Act of 1959
■ HB 7725 or An Act Regulating the Operations and Imposition of Fees for the Use of Parking Spaces and Parking Facilities in Various Establishments; among other measures.