Bills, bills, bills

If there is one Cabinet official of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) who will stay on until the end of his term on June 30, 2028, it will be a hands down win for Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Secretary Conrado Estrella III. Of the 23 or so department secretaries, it was only Estrella who was publicly asked by PBBM to remain in his Cabinet post.

As he declared in his penultimate State of the Nation Address (SONA), PBBM told – more of a personal request – Estrella he must remain at the DAR helm until his administration’s land reform goal is achieved and completed. Estrella is one of the few remaining original Marcos Cabinet officials, who joined him from day one of his administration on June 30, 2022. All this time, Estrella never, not once, landed in any controversial issue or tries to hog media attention.

PBBM dedicated several minutes about his administration’s major accomplishments in the agriculture sector in his one hour and 30 minutes long SONA, mostly spoken in Filipino, interspersed with English. For the past four years, the Chief Executive took pride in having distributed 400,000 land titles to Filipino farmer-beneficiaries covering 500,000 agricultural lands all over the country.

The 65-year-old Estrella was of course most visibly elated by the very special mention of PBBM when he was complimented during the SONA last Monday. He is a tall guy but a very low-profile Cabinet official. Seated among fellow Cabinet officials in the audience at the Batasan Pambansa, Estrella merely smiled when the camera panned to him.

“Marami sa benepisyaryo ang naghintay ng 30 hanggang 60 taon. Ang iba, mapalad na nasaksihan ang paglabas ng kanilang titulo. Sa tagal naman ng panahon, ‘yung iba apo na ang tumanggap,” PBBM deplored.

“Kaya asahan ninyo kukumpletuhin na natin ngayong taon ang ginagawa nating pagpapawalang-bisa ng mga utang ng ating mga benepisyaryo,” he vowed.

Through these years, the DAR under Estrella has been supporting the government’s land reform program with irrigation systems, farm machinery, farm-to-market roads and agricultural credit extension to the farmer-beneficiaries and their families, PBBM reported.

“Upang makapagbigay ng kapanatagan sa isipan ng mga benepisyaryo ng agrarian reform, wala tayong tigil sa pamamahagi ng mga titulo sa lupa na ginawad sa kanila. Gayundin kahalaga sa kanila ang seguridad na hatid ng kalayaan mula sa pagkalubog sa utang,” PBBM reiterated.

“Kaya sinasabi ko, Secretary Conrad, huwag mo munang isipin na puwede ka nang mag-retire. Marami ka pang trabaho na gagawin sa DAR,” the President declared.

For obvious reasons, PBBM did not mention the law on the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. The CARP Law was enacted during the administration of the late president Corazon Aquino following the February 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. The CARP Law replaced the land reform program that was implemented during the martial law regime under PBBM’s namesake father, president Ferdinand Sr.

PBBM is merely being consistent in showing his full trust and confidence to his DAR Secretary. Proof of which is that Estrella is a permanent fixture as one of the three Cabinet “caretaker” officials whom PBBM named in all the 45 foreign trips he undertook since assuming office at Malacañang Palace. This is the “ultimate political trust” that artificial intelligence-aided Google search cited.

The AI-aided Google search described PBBM’s relations with Estrella as “exceptionally close due to a deep, multi-generational family alliance and high level of executive trust.” Among the cited “key reasons for their close connection” is that the current DAR chief is the grandson of Conrado Estrella Sr.

Calling it as “multi-generational legacy,” Estrella Sr. served as the minister of agrarian reform for 15 years during the martial law regime of PBBM’s late father. “By appointing Estrella III, Marcos Jr. consciously mirrored his father’s Cabinet structure,” the AI-aided Google explained.

Further, it also cited the “shared agricultural agenda” as both have deep political ties to the agricultural sector. The younger Estrella spent decades as a congressman representing the agricultural province of Pangasinan and the Abono Party-list, while Marcos Jr. was Ilocos Norte Governor then. This aligns perfectly with PBBM’s heavy emphasis on agricultural modernization and the distribution of land titles, the AI-aided Google noted.

In the same SONA, President Marcos called upon the 20th Congress to help his administration accomplish the remaining to-do measures pending in the legislative mill. For the second regular session of this Congress, PBBM identified the five priority bills for immediate approval into law before his term ends in the next two years;

• Bill expanding income tax exemption for workers with below P350,000 annual take-home pay;

• Bill exempting small businesses from minimum corporate income tax;

• Bill on the amendments to the Electric Power Industry Act (EPIRA) that will remove systems loss charge and value added tax imposed on it;

• Bill to amend the National Building Code;

• Bill on the proposed Sariling Kuryente Act.

A day after his SONA, Malacañang Palace released the accompanying technical report where the Chief Executive submitted his other wish list to the 20th Congress:

• Bill on the Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability Act;

• Bill on the Right to Information Act;

• Bill on the proposed amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Bank Secrecy laws;

• Bill on Philippine Budgeting Code;

• Bill on eBayad Act;

• Bill creating the Department of Water Resources and Water Regulatory Commission;

• Bill on amendments to the Rice Tariffication Law;

• Bill on Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund;

• Bill on Fisheries Code;

• Bill on Expanded Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education Act;

• Bill on Seal of Good Local Governance Act of 2019;

• Bill on Congressional Commission on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Security Act;

• Bill on National Land Use Act;

• Bill on classroom building acceleration program bill; and,

• Bill on Waste-To-Energy.

The proposed bill on the President’s budget for 2027 must be submitted not later than a month after the SONA.