The BBM bill and Angat Buhay

At this very early stage, President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) has already averted what could be yet another divisive exercise in governance. Sensing the onset of jockeying and positioning, the incoming Chief Executive sat down last week with the newly elected Senators and Congressmen to settle the leadership race before the 19th Congress officially convenes next month.

After all, it will be his first-ever state of the nation address to cap the traditional joint opening sessions of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the 19th Congress at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City on July 25.

With his administration’s legislative priority agenda in mind, PBBM invited the newly elected set of Senators and House leaders to sit down with him at his former election campaign headquarters in Mandaluyong City last week. According to him, he had initial talks with almost the same set of legislators of the outgoing 18th Congress last May 12 for nearly three hours at the Batasan. This was after the President-elect and Vice President-elect Sara Duterte-Carpio attended their official proclamation as the winners in the May 9 elections.

The race for the successor of outgoing Senate president Vicente Sotto III started immediately after the latter lost as VP runningmate of Sen. Panfilo Lacson in the last elections. As a continuing body of Congress, the twelve incumbent members of the Senate led by veteran lawmaker Sen. Cynthia Villar closed ranks to push her bid to succeed Sotto as next Senate chief. She needs only 13 Senators, including herself and son, newly elected Sen. Mark Villar, to get the majority votes to become the country’s first-ever woman Senate president.

As it subsequently turned out, the new set of 12 Senators for the 19th Congress – who included re-electionist Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian and comebacking Senator, outgoing Sorsogon Governor Francis Escudero – were reportedly also interested to become the next Senate chief.

Fortunately for Zubiri, Gatchalian, Escudero and several other fellow senatorial candidates won together with him under the same UniTeam Senate ticket of the BBM-Duterte tandem. They now comprise what they call as the “super majority” at the Senate.

Obviously, a behind-the-scene persuasion prompted a feisty lawmaker like Sen. Villar to back out from a good fight for the Senate leadership. In the meeting at the campaign headquarters, PBBM reportedly advised Senators who previously committed to vote for Sen. Villar as Senate chief. Himself a former Senator, PBBM reminded them they ought to give her a heads up and to explain or justify their switch and change of mind. When all is said and done, she gave way to Zubiri the next day.

Sen. Villar announced the next day she would rather continue to chair the Senate committee on agriculture and the committee on environment, both of which she currently heads. The richest among the Senators, she cited her primary advocacies in life are under these two of the 42 or so of standing committees at the Senate.

It was a smooth transition though at the Lower Chamber. Current House majority leader Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez has already secured in his bid to become the next Speaker of the 19th Congress. Aside from his first cousin Rep. Romualdez – whose wife Yedda is also a re-elected party list representative – PBBM can also count on his newly-minted Congressman son, Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos and another first cousin Rep. Angelo Marcos-Barba of the first and second district, respectively, of Ilocos Norte.

Other than his relatives on board, PBBM has the so-called “super majority” of allies at the 19th Congress that will carry his legislative priorities to breeze through both chambers. Call it “rubber stamp,” but PBBM will have the numbers whenever there are deadlocks on crucial bills and other legislative issues that will go into voting.

At the same meeting in the PBBM campaign headquarters, the House contingent promised to complete the incoming administration’s socio-economic and fiscal reform legislative agenda. Considered as the resident economist at the Lower Chamber, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda was tasked by their incoming Speaker to draw up the economic stimulus bill dubbed as the BBM bill.

A take-off from the initials of the President-elect, this bill stood for Bangon Bayan Muli. Roughly translated, it means the country rises again.

Salceda believes the BBM bill will be able to boost the country’s economy from the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. With the malingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for more than two years now, Salceda cited the country’s economic recovery requires much push that it can get from government policy reforms.

Smart alecks among the anti-Marcos opposition sneer at the BBM bill even before it could be filed in the 19th Congress. Our lawmakers must first go through the proposed bill meant for the common good and national welfare.

No less than outgoing VP Leni Robredo is launching her own Angat Buhay (Lift Life) movement of non-government organization (NGO) starting next month. After losing her presidential bid, she begins this new movement on the same day PBBM’s term for the next six years will begin. “On the first day of July, the Angat Buhay NGO will be launched. The widest volunteer center in the history of the country will be formed. We continue to serve those who are in the margins and contribute in their uplifting,” VP Robredo promised.

It brings to mind the first “Angat Pinoy” medium-term economic development program pursued by former president Joseph Estrada. Rabid Estrada critics and political enemies though renamed “Angat” into “Tanga,” its anagram meant stupid, dumb, or idiot. Incidentally, erstwhile Estrada economic managers, Benjamin Diokno and Felipe Medalla, are now part of PBBM’s economic team.

While the BBM bill or Angat Buhay NGO may sound or look like copycats of programs of the previous administrations, these well-intentioned initiatives deserve support, not cynicisms or ridicule.