House OKs 30 bills on last session day

MANILA, Philippines - The House of Representatives approved 30 bills on Friday, its last session day before the three-week recess of Congress.

Of the 30 measures, 17 are of national application. The most significant of these are those that make election duty voluntary on the part of public school teachers, authorize wiretapping for drug offenses, modernize customs and tariff administration and increase the capitalization of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas from P50 billion to P200 billion.

Also approved are a bill establishing the coconut farmers and industry trust fund and providing for its management and utilization, and a measure specifying the rights of airline passengers and protecting them against abuse.

Shortly after Bill 5412 (making election duty voluntary) was approved, Rep. Lito Atienza of party-list group Buhay took the floor to strongly protest the loss of an amendment he had presented before the measure was approved on second reading three weeks ago.

He said he wanted to retain the compulsory nature of election duty on the part of public school teachers but proposed that they be paid a minimum of P8,000 allowance if it were made voluntary.

He said Rep. Antonio Tinio of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, sponsor of the bill, had accepted his proposal.

However, he said the printed copy that the House had just approved on third and final reading authorized the Commission on Elections to fix the amount of allowance to be given to teachers.

“What happened to my amendment, which the sponsor had accepted? Why was it interacted with this provision?” Atienza asked.

He said he would write a letter-complaint to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan, one of the authors of the proposed trust fund for coconut farmers, said the measure aims to make coconut levy funds as a “perpetual source of financing for coconut industry programs.”

“The enactment of a law on the disposition and utilization of the assets and funds from the coconut levy is not only urgent but important because it would ensure that these funds are used only for the benefit of coconut farmers,” she said.

She said coconut farmers are among the poorest groups in the agriculture sector.

Tan’s province is a coconut-producing area.

Bayan Muna party list Rep. Neri Colmenares, one of the authors of the proposed Airline Passengers’ Bill of Rights, said the measure prohibits overbooking on the part of airlines.

“The bill seeks to remedy the abuse of airlines of passengers who suffer flight delays and cancellations. It also provides for 20 percent discount on airfares to senior citizens, persons with disabilities and students,” he said.

The measure likewise requires airlines to reimburse 75 percent of the fare as long as the passenger cancels the flight at least 24 hours before departure “because now almost nothing is left of the fare when one reimburses,” he said.

“It requires airlines to provide refreshment for a two-hour delay, including free phone or Internet and hotel accommodation for cancelled flights,” he added.

The highlight of Friday’s session was the approval of the proposed P3.002-trillion national budget for 2016.

In a statement, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad thanked Belmonte, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, appropriations committee chairman Rep. Isidro Ungab of Davao City, his vice chairmen and House members for the passage of the budget.

“Through our combined efforts, we have ended a decade of frequent budget re-enactments and started a new tradition of timely passage of the budget,” he said.

“We have produced a budget that moved away from the practice of incremental and leakage-prone allocation of scarce resources and lump-sum appropriations, and moved towards performance-based outcome budgeting. We have enabled agencies to undertake swift implementation of priority programs and projects and communities to have a say on how funds may be used to address their real needs,” he said.

“Now we find ourselves at a critical moment in our partnership in crafting the national budget. It is at this point that we are scaling up good governance reforms so that we are able to increase the economy’s ability to attain inclusive growth,” he said.