RH one of Aquino’s 12 priority bills for Congress’ approval

MANILA, Philippines—The reproductive health bill is one of 12 priority bills that President Benigno Aquino III will be presenting to Congress for approval this year.

Mr. Aquino Wednesday said that the reproductive health bill, which he prefers to call the “responsible parenthood” bill, was one of the measures that he discussed with the Cabinet at a seven-hour meeting on Tuesday to firm up the administration’s legislative agenda for presentation to congressional leaders at the end of the month.

He said he wanted the features of the reproductive health bill to include the provisions agreed earlier between the Palace and the Catholic Church, such as one that says that information on family planning methods will not be forced on people and that “there will be sanctions if this was done.”

“And maybe we might also set up natural family planning centers, apart from the other methods to be done by the Department of Health,” Mr. Aquino told reporters.

Swift passage assured

Mr. Aquino said he approved only 12 priority bills out of 32 measures tackled at the meeting “to ensure swift passage.”

Actually, the Cabinet had proposed 138 measures for approval by Congress but this was trimmed down to 32 measures which officials tried to pitch to Mr. Aquino the other day.

“I’m sure if you ask all of the departments, they’ll ask them (Congress) to push all 138. There has to be a prioritization,” the President told reporters.

The Palace intends to call its first Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting at the end of the month.

Speaking to reporters at the 65th founding anniversary of the ruling Liberal Party, Mr. Aquino said he wanted a smaller number of priority measures because he wanted to use his power to certify a bill as urgent judiciously.

Stickler for Constitution

This is because the Constitution is “very specific” in that it requires the President to certify a bill as urgent only if there is an emergency and if it is intended to address a disaster, he said.

“In my view, you should propose bills that are really urgent and will really be acted upon immediately by a co-equal branch,” Mr. Aquino told reporters.

He said bills that had been certified as urgent in past administrations violated that constitutional requirement and this power was actually abused.

“So, we will tell them what the priority bills are. When we talk to the leadership of both chambers and the minority [we will tell them] that these are very important pieces of legislation but we want to be very straight in the interpretation of the Constitution that there are requirements to certify it as urgent,” Mr. Aquino said.

Fewer bills better

But because Mr. Aquino wanted certain “refinements” on some of the proposed measures, the Cabinet has yet to finalize the 12 priority bills.

Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang said Mr. Aquino wanted fewer bills for priority to ensure that they will be approved.

“He’s been in the Senate. He knows how the legislative mill works. He said the fewer bills we send to them the better the chances of them being passed,” Carandang said.

Also discussed at the Tuesday Cabinet meeting was a bill seeking to review industries and entities “imbued with national interest” to “ensure that there’s harmony” in development plans, the President said.

GOCC pay benefits

Mr. Aquino said that the meeting also discussed a bill seeking to rationalize the pay benefits of executives in government-owned and -controlled corporations and financial institutions.

“Among the [proposed] features was that like any other corporation, there should be a one-year tenure because in a private corporation, the board gets reelected every year,” he said.

What was important to him, he said, was that “there should be a limit as to how much GOCC officials can reward themselves.”

Also discussed was a bill aimed at institutionalizing the government’s K+12 education program, which adds two years to the basic education program.

Senators’ list of 23

Senators have agreed to approve 23 priority measures on top of Malacañang’s priority legislation by the end of the first regular session in June, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said Wednesday.

The senators met in a caucus on Tuesday and agreed to submit three priority measures each for consideration by the chamber between now and June, according to Sotto.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile has not specified what category of policy legislation the senators should work on, he said.

“There was a sentiment that aside from their priorities we should look at the issues of peace and order and the rule of law,” he said.

Because of the spate of crimes recently, there was a strong sense to craft legislation that would give more teeth to the authorities to curb crime, Sotto said.

Lawmakers will also study the idea of transferring control of the police from the national government to local chief executives to better address crimes in localities, he said.

“We should study the structure of the Philippine National Police,” Sotto said.

The No. 1 measure in each senator’s list will be compiled and will be prioritized for approval by June, he said.

“With an approach like that, we feel that we will be able to pass between 10 and 12. If we do that, then we would have really worked well for the first session of the 15th Congress,” he said.

The Senate will be receiving Malacañang’s list at the LEDAC meeting later this month.

“We will take up what they will be submitting,” Sotto said. –Christine O. Avendaño, TJ Burgonio, Philippine Daily Inquirer