The 19th Congress

Members of the 19th Congress are giving themselves a pat on the back for the laws they passed since 2022.

But they will be remembered mostly for the controversial measures, the congressional inquiries, and of course the first-ever impeachment of a vice president of the republic.

First, let’s recognize the work of the outgoing Congress. The first law to be enacted by President Marcos was the SIM Card Registration Act – meant to reduce cyberscams, although still not enough.

Also signed were the Public-Private Partnership Code, the Internet Transactions Act, the Magna Carta for Seafarers along with laws easing tax payments, extending the availment of the estate tax amnesty, promoting regional specialty centers and “Tatak Pinoy” as well as the “one town, one product” policy and promoting caregivers’ welfare.

Other laws aimed to develop the local salt and natural gas industries, extended passport validity to 10 years, banned the “no permit, no exam” school policy and stopped the mother tongue program. Also signed were laws defining and penalizing agricultural economic sabotage, promoting mental health and well-being in basic education, modernizing Phivolcs, amending EPIRA, regulating motorcycle use to prevent crimes using the vehicle, making NEDA a full department, and creating an early childhood care and development system.

The coast guard chief was given a fixed term, and a law was enacted against financial account scams. The “Eddie Garcia Law” protects workers in the movie and TV industries.

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And now for the contentious laws: among the first was the Maharlika Investment Fund Act, railroaded by Congress, which has so far been a boon – to its officials with fat paychecks.

The 19th Congress will always be notorious for its budget acrobatics and abuse of the power of the purse, to circumvent the Supreme Court ban on pork barrel-type funds in the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Not chastened by the uproar over the impounding of “savings” of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and other government corporations to finance their new pork barrel, the unprogrammed appropriations, the bicameral conference approved behind closed doors a GAA for this year that was unrecognizable from the National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the Department of Budget and Management.

The mangling of the NEP was so atrocious the resulting GAA has been described as the most corrupt national budget ever. The issue has landed in the lap of the Supreme Court where, the petitioners hope, an unequivocal ruling will be handed down, declaring several provisions of the GAA unconstitutional, which must not be repeated.

The 2025 GAA also sought to institutionalize the use of state-funded ayuda for the personal (mainly election campaign) purposes of lawmakers and their political allies. It politicized social welfare, health and employment programs while de-funding depoliticized aid particularly the conditional cash transfer or 4Ps and PhilHealth.

Public disgust over this vile institutionalization of thievery eclipsed whatever goodwill was generated by the congressional probes on Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war and the confidential fund acrobatics of his daughter as Vice President and when she was education secretary.

The disgust also allowed the Duterte camp, at the time already at war with Marcos 2.0, to say, “look who’s talking” when the VP was accused of corruption.

Alyansa campaign manager Toby Tiangco said their internal surveys showed the administration Senate slate’s numbers begin to plummet after the VP’s impeachment, and worsening after the scandal erupted over the 2025 national budget.

Nearly all members of the 19th Congress seemed unable to comprehend the perception created by the budget controversy: that being lawmakers, they think they can bend the law at will, and go around Supreme Court rulings declaring certain acts unconstitutional.

In yet another manifestation of this mindset, on the last session day last week, the 19th Congress ratified a bill again postponing the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections this year.

The first two laws signed on the same day by BBM as President, in October 2022, were in fact the SIM Registration Act along with the measure postponing the BSKE scheduled in December of that year. Borrowing a page from the Duterte presidency, the term extension was seen as the UniTeam’s thank you to grassroots political leaders for their work in the 2022 general elections.

This law was nullified by the SC, in a ruling peppered with the word “unconstitutional.” Even non-lawyers understand the SC prohibition against extending the terms of BSK officials and postponing the BSKE in the absence of a public emergency and for a period that is “unduly long.”

And yet here we go again, with the 19th Congress wanting to circumvent the Supreme Court ruling with another one-year term extension for the BSK officials, and even giving them a four-year term, using the same tired arguments that have been shot down by the SC.

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If legislators want to promote efficiency in the barangay system, they should pass a law withdrawing the power of the barangays to generate their own funds. Because of this power, village officials find every excuse to collect fees to build a nice barangay hall, buy brand-new barangay vehicles and give barangay officials bonuses and other perks.

This power has been one of the biggest sources of red tape and disincentive to business, which all entrepreneurs in this country, from micro to the biggest operators, complain about. Foreign investors have long pointed to these roadblocks to what should be job-generating businesses.

Providing the funding for each barangay can be left to the local government, with congressmen being given a say in their particular jurisdictions. Among the considerations in barangay fund allocation must be efficiency – in promoting ease of doing business for example, or keeping surroundings clean and helping maintain peace and order.

Neighboring countries understand the importance of job generation and retention, so they focus on creating a business-friendly environment that creates jobs instead of pandering to organized labor.

In our country, populism reigns, with self-indulgent politicians wanting a say in everything, including wage fixing, and free rein in using public funds for their personal purposes.

Even if the 19th Congress failed to agree on the legislated wage hike, passed without consulting the sector that would shoulder the cost, the business community has been spooked by a possible repeat attempt. Business groups are saying that many of their members, from micro to large, are now seriously considering which jobs can be cut and replaced with artificial intelligence, in case wages are legislated.

Such is the cost of populism and myopic lawmaking, which are the hallmarks of the 19th Congress.