Civil society alliance proposes priority bills

Below is a short list of the pending bills in Congress, which the same alliance of civil society groups believe, should be prioritized and passed during the current Fifteenth Congress. The list is based on the bills cited in the draft of Medium Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) chapters; the Citizens’ Roadmap for Poverty Reduction and Achieving the Millenuim Development Goals, which contain civil society recommendations for the MTPDP; and the multisectoral legislative agenda developed by various civil society groups during the third National Multi-Sectoral Policy Conference on Human Development.

• Debt audit bill—aims to review and rationalize the country’s debt policies; ascertain the legitimacy of debts; make transparent the payment of debt obligations; and determine which are fraudulent.

• Philippine trade representative office bill—will define the international trade negotiating framework and the country’s trade policies and priorities more clearly.

• Magna carta of workers in informal employment—proposes programs such as social security, health care assistance, and social welfare and safety nets, for small farmers, vendors, home-based workers and other workers in informal employment.

• Reproductive health and responsible parenthood bill—a comprehensive policy that will empower both women and men by providing them with informed choices on how to best address their reproductive health needs.

• National land use policy—will institutionalize judicious and effective land use through the provision of appropriate implementing mechanisms and strategies to resolve conflicting claims on land and overlapping land uses.

• Freedom of information bill—shall provide a clear, uniform and speedy procedure for access to information. The procedure shall provide a quick and certain period for compliance, and the manner of making and responding to requests.

• Universal health care bill—answers the need to expand the national health insurance program by amending Republic Act (RA) 7875 to include properly identifying the poor as the priority target beneficiaries, increasing the premium contribution of the national government and defining offenses and abuses against the National Health Insurance Program.

• Kasambahay bill—recognizes the rights of women working as domestic helpers. It seeks to provide domestic helpers more protection in terms of wages, labor standards and other forms of social protection. This bill also affirms the provision in RA 9231 stipulating that children below 15 years are not allowed to engage in domestic work.

• Minerals management bill—seeks to regulate the rational exploration, development and utilization of mineral resources. The proposed bill aims to scrap the Mining Act of 1995, and ensure the equitable sharing of benefits for the State, indigenous peoples and local communities.

• Forest resources bill—aims mainly for the protection and restoration of our forests, the adoption of a functional definition of a forest, the adoption of the watershed continuum as the forestland management unit, and the empowerment of both local governments and local communities in forest management.

• Competition policy—aims to regulate and prohibit monopolies, and to ensure that no combination in restraint of trade or unfair competition shall be allowed by the state, in order to protect consumer welfare and advance trade and economic development.

• Adjustment of sin taxes—the proposed increased tax on tobacco, alcohol, and soft drink products seeks to generate additional revenues for the government and promote public health. It proposes that funds from the increased taxes be earmarked to support health care services.

• Automatic appropriation for health, education and housing—this legislation aims to provide higher appropriations for social services in government expenditures.

• Amendment to the Labor Code on security of tenure—This bill will safeguard and strengthen the worker’s constitutional right of security of tenure.

• Repeal of Automatic Appropriation Law for debt servicing—needed in order to allow the Congress to freely allocate resources to more pressing social needs.

• People’s survival fund—aims to strengthen the Climate Change Act of 2009 by providing predictable, adequate, continuous and untied financing for local climate adaptation.

• Amendments to the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines—aims to address smuggling.