23 priority bills to be presented at LEDAC meeting

MANILA, Philippines – Twenty-three priority measures will be presented to leaders and members of Congress during Tuesday’s Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting, President Aquino said yesterday.

Aquino said the pension system for the military and the police would have to be a priority because the government would need one that was viable due to the increasing number of beneficiaries and actual personnel services for it.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said in a chance interview before the full Cabinet meeting in Malacañang that the proposed measures will include those mentioned in Aquino’s second State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July.

But Aquino and Ochoa said the decision on whether to include the responsible parenthood and freedom of information bills would still have to be agreed upon by the Cabinet officials.

Aquino also said he was still studying the indexing of sin taxes to inflation and would talk about it once he was finished with the review of all the bills pending before Congress.

Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning head Ricky Carandang said the indexing of taxes on sin products like alcohol and tobacco to the inflation rate would be discussed during the Cabinet meeting.

The SONA bills include measures to give due compensation to martial law victims; standardize salaries for household workers; expand the scope of scholarships granted by Department of Science and Technology to outstanding yet underprivileged students; advance universal quality health care; promote responsible management of the environment; form facilities that will ensure the safety of citizens during times of calamity; and strengthen and develop the Bureau of Corrections, National Bureau of Investigation, National Electrification Administration and the government network People’s Television-4.

Ochoa said the final list of priority measures would be decided by the Cabinet.

Ochoa clarified that the other bills presented during the first LEDAC meeting would be followed up but the focus of the second LEDAC would be on the new measures along with the Philippine Development Plan, the government’s development road map until 2016. –Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star)