Q: On the monthly
legislative meeting of Senate and House leaders
SPFMD: First, we met
again with our counterparts in the House - and bigyan ko lang diin ano, in my
years in Congress, this is the most effective mechanism that the leadership of
both Houses have adopted, that enabled to pass a number of critical and
reform-oriented measures. Just from the last time that we met, we passed
no less than 4 measures, since the last time met.
We have passed in both Houses the
measure that will increase the minimum SSS pension, we passed the Tax
Incentives Management and Transparency Act, we passed the PAGASA Modernization
Act, we passed the Sangguniang Kabataan Reform Act.
So these are the four laws that we
passed since our last meeting, and in our meeting today, we plotted again what
we can do in the next fifteen (15) session days, which will be until December,
we have 15 session days. We have discussed and enumerated the measures that we
will give priority to.
Of course the number one priority is
the budget. The House will transmit to the Senate the budget on November
9. The Committee on Finance of the Senate will sponsor it on November 11.
Interpellations will immediately follow. One of our problems is that
on November 17 there will be three (3) days of APEC holidays and even if
we want to meet in the Senate and have sessions, we could not do so because the
agencies will be busy with APEC and the roads, the security measures in our
premises will be very difficult.
So we are looking at the Senate
version of the General Appropriations Act being passed on third reading at the
first week of December. We are very confident that by third week of December it
will be by the President for his signature and we will have a budget before the
year is over.
Our agreement is that we will also
continue the interpellations on the Bangsamoro Basic Law. There are a lot of
negotiations, we will see how and what we can do. But we will give it also our
priority. There are about half a dozen other measures that we have included in
our calendar for the next 15 session days. That’s what it is.
Q: What are the other
priority measures?
SPFMD: The Department of
Information and Communications Technology, the Acquisition of Right-of-Way for
Government Infrastructure Projects, we have the amendments to the Build-Operate
and Transfer (BOT) Law, the Customs and Tariff Modernization Act or CTMA, and
the Government Industry Tax Plan.
Q: On the proposal of
Congressman Colmenares to pass a joint resolution suspending the provision
of the law penalizing the possession of more than one bullet, to address
the laglag-bala scam
SPFMD: We would
rather have a permanent bill rather than a suspension, and in both Houses, I
understand, there are bills on this. Congresswoman Leni has filed, Senator Bam
in the Senate filed similar bills on this, decriminalizing the illegal
possession of up to three bullets rather than you know, a temporary solution .
We are in favor of this. ###
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