Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Congress to pass cheaper medicine, tax exemption bills before May 1
CONGRESS on Tuesday agreed to pass the bills on cheaper medicines and tax exemption for minimum wage earners before May 1 (Labor Day) as a gift to the workers.
This was agreed upon during Tuesday’s first meeting of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) this year in Malacañang. Aside from the lawmakers and Cabinet officials, leaders from the private sector and the local government organizations were also present in the meeting.
The Cheaper Medicines Bill is pending approval in the bicameral conference level while the bill on income tax exemption for minimum wage earners is pending in the committees on ways and means in both chambers of Congress.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said the Department of Agriculture (DA) made a presentation on the rice situation and prices of basic commodities and unprocessed agricultural products.
He said the discussions focused on how to improve food production, repair irrigation facilities, and improve credit and distribution facilities.
Bunye said Congress and Malacañang agreed to have a separate Ledac meeting on the Baselines Bill before June.
“This needs special treatment. This is a very complicated issue and it might not be appropriate to lump the issue together with these concerns,” he said.
After the Ledac meeting, Malacañang and Congress agreed that 17 bills would be passed before the sine die adjournment on June 13, with the eight coming from Congress unfinished business last December and nine other new bills.
The eight bills that Congress failed to pass before it adjourned for its Christmas break last December were the: Affordable Quality Medicines; amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) law; Amnesty Proclamation for Communist Rebels; Credit Information System; Establishment of the Personal Equity Retirement Account (Pera); amendments to the Customs Brokers Act; Renewable Energy; and the National Tourism Policy.
The Ledac agreed to add nine more bills to the common legislative agenda, and these are the: Income Tax Exemption for Minimum Wage Earners; extension of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (Carp); amendments to the Consumer Act; strengthening of the Office of the Ombudsman by allowing it to use private prosecutors; the Anti-Smuggling Act; Stiffer Penalties against Illegal Possession of Explosives; the Magna Carta for Women; the Witness Protection Act; and the Fire Protection Modernization.
Malacañang also pushed for the Senate's immediate ratification of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement; Optional Protocol Against Torture; UN Convention on Disability; RP-Australia Visiting Forces Agreement; and the Avoidance of Double Taxation on New Zealand Forestry.
Of the 13 priority bills agreed upon in the Ledac on December 11, Congress only passed the extension of the Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund (ACEF); Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines; the General Appropriations Act of 2008; the University of the Philippines (UP) charter; and amendments to the Magna Carta for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Congress also passed the Filipino World War II Veterans Equity Act.
The enrolled bill on the UP charter would be signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on April 28 while the amendment to the Magna Carta for SMEs is still pending transmittal to Malacañang.
On the rice issue, Bunye said the President was not too keen on creating the position of “rice czar” because there is already an existing agency that takes care of it. However, he said Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap has been ordered to concentrate more on the rice production and distribution aspects.
Bunye said Senator Edgardo Angara, Senate agriculture and food committee chairman, pushed for measures to improve food production such as the bills on the extension of Carp, Land Use, Use of Land as Collateral, and reviewing the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act and the Agri-Agra laws. He said there was a “tacit” approval that the measures would be given priority also.
He said Angara also told the Ledac that government should concentrate on irrigated areas, especially the 400,000 hectares where irrigation systems need to be repaired, because these would produce about three million tons of rice. He said it would offset the possible subsidies to be given to the National Food Authority.
He said Senator Richard Gordon pushed for the passage of the Food Donation Bill, which provides that restaurants and tourism establishments with excess food should give these to the Red Cross and the social welfare department.
According to him, Senator Manuel Roxas II proposed that local government units should become partners in retail operations and loan facilities. He said Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri pushed for the ratification of an international agreement granting headquarters status to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
Bunye said Malacañang got a “better than usual attention from the Senate” during the Ledac, with the attendance of nine of 24 senators. “Everybody is interested in looking for solutions and that's a good start,” he said.
The other senators who attended the Ledac meeting were Manuel VIllar Jr., Francis Pangilinan, Loren Legarda, Rodolfo Biazon and Juan Ponce Enrile. (JMR/Sunnex)
