Noy, Cabinet fail to come up with list of priority bills

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino and his Cabinet were not able to come up with a list of priority bills for Congress.

The Cabinet meeting in Malacañang was still going on as of press time late yesterday.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Cabinet has not yet discussed Charter change, new taxes or the human rights compensation bill.

Earlier, Aquino said he would want the victims of martial law compensated.

Sen. Joker Arroyo and other advocates urged him to certify the compensation bill as urgent.

However, Valte said she did not see it in the list of priorities of the Cabinet’s human development cluster.

“We said early on that the President wants to exercise the certification powers judiciously, and there is a possibility that there might be a shorter list,” she said.

“There is a possibility… but, again, that is not final until the meeting is finished.”

Valte said the priority bills might not be readily decided upon because Aquino still has questions on some of them.

“I assume that the President would want a little more time because he asked further details on some of the measures,” she said.

“But, after this, I think we will have more or less a working structure, a working list of what the priority measures will be.

“He did say that there are some items that he wanted more details on. From what I remember, one, he wanted to see a draft; two, he wanted to see more studies; and three, he wanted some figures on some particular measures.”

Valte said Aquino would call for a full Cabinet meeting whenever needed because working with different clusters would be more efficient.

“The President prefers to work in clusters so as not to take time away from the other Cabinet secretaries who have other things to do and who may not be really needed for a particular issue,” she said.

“So he prefers to work in clusters but, from time to time, or whenever it is needed, he will call a Cabinet meeting.”

Valte said the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) would still push through by the end of the month as scheduled.

Health care, log ban priorities – Loren

President Aquino is eyeing the Universal Health Act and the bill seeking a total log ban as among his priority legislative measures, Sen. Loren Legarda said yesterday.

Legarda said Aquino had informed her about some of his priority measures when she visited him yesterday at Malacañang to hand over a letter from Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whom the military government had recently freed from detention.

Legarda said Aquino showed her a lengthy list of legislative measures and pointed out some of his priorities.

“(They are) universal health care, log ban,” she said. “He showed me pictures of logs in Caraga.”

Legarda said Aquino and his team are still studying how the log ban can be implemented.

“Sabi nya (He said) we are still studying it,” she said.

“Sabi ko (I said) if that is going to be your legacy, and you have the popular rating to do something in it, and he has the political will to do it, that would be great. Save lives and save our future.”

It was the first time Legarda set foot in Malacañang since Aquino won in the last elections.

Legarda was the vice-presidential running mate of Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Manuel Villar Jr. in the last elections.

The meeting at the music room in Malacañang lasted about 30 minutes, Legarda said.

The Senate has started plenary debates on the proposed total log ban.

Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senate committee on environment and natural resources chairman, urged Aquino to certify as urgent the Senate bill calling for a total log ban.

“I fully support the President’s tough stand against massive logging operations. It’s about time,” he said.

“The magnitude of disaster is alarming. We have seen this recently in Australia, Brazil and even here at home in Albay. We have to be tough in ensuring the protection of our environment and we have to do it now.”

Zubiri said he has long been advocating for a total log ban.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile told Legarda and Zubiri on the floor that a total log ban would not ensure the country’s forest cover would be preserved.

In Senate Bill 2172 filed last July, Zubiri proposed a 35-year moratorium on all logging operations except for trees planted for commercial and/or industrial purposes, provided that these are not located in primary and secondary forests or rainforests.

“Various studies and first-hand experiences have taught us time and again that the continuous exploitation of the finite resources of our forests due to intensified logging activities results in catastrophic flashfloods,” he said.– –Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) with Christina Mendez