By Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz & Butch Fernandez
LAWMAKERS started filing their pet bills on Monday, as the term of the 18th Congress began, with Senate President Vicente Sotto III listing measures he will personally push, including a law mandating the grant of 14th-month pay to workers.
In the House of Representatives, among the first bills filed were those increasing the minimum wage bill and repealing two key reforms enacted during the 17th Congress: the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law and the Rice Tariffication Law.
The members of the 18th HOR also filed a divorce bill and another allowing medical marijuana.
In filing the enabling bill to be tackled soon as lawmakers convene the first regular session of the 18th Congress on July 22, Sotto invoked Article II, Section 18 of the Constitution, which specifically provides that “the State affirms labor as a primary social economic force” and mandating it to “protect the rights of workers and promote their welfare.”
The Senate leader told the BusinessMirror that a House counterpart bill mandating the 14th-month benefit is set to be filed by Reps. Precious Hipolito and Kit Belmonte in order to fast-track simultaneous passage of the 14th-month-pay bill in the two chambers.
“We recognize the indispensable need to provide our Filipino laborers, both from the public and private sectors, additional 14th-month pay,” Sotto said, noting that “every now and then, various labor groups have been petitioning for the increase in minimum wage.”
Moreover, Sotto observed that “wages have invisibly decreased due to the rise in prices of basic commodities.”
Citing reports that “improved busi-ness earnings have not cascaded on its own,” the Senate leader, likewise, noted that the workers’ 13th-month pay is usually “gobbled up by Christmas expenses.”
“We need extra earnings in the middle of the year to help in school and medical expenses,” Sotto stressed, adding: “Health and education needs of the ordinary Filipino must be assisted by our government.”
Sotto, meanwhile, started lining up priority bills to be tackled by the 24-member chamber as soon as Congress convenes regular session on July 22
Among the list of priority bills expected to be referred for Senate committee hearings before these are submitted for plenary consideration and approval are the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act, the Public Service Act, the Foreign Investment Act, Medical Scholarship and Lowering the Age of Criminal Liability, among other bills that need to be refiled after failing to get final approval in the previous Congress.
Sotto also listed other bills expected to be frontloaded for plenary deliberation and floor vote after getting committee endorsements: the proposed Medical Scholarship Act, Anti-Drug Penal Institution, Presidential Drug Enforcement Authority and the Dangerous Drugs Court bill.
Also in the senator’s priority list are the proposed SIM Card Registration Act, Anti-Fake News Act, Increasing the Penalty for Perjury, Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Hybrid Election Act.
Teachers’ pay hike
ALSO expected for early consideration is a separate bill filed by Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara increasing the salaries of public-school teachers, seen to fulfill the President’s pledge to 800,000 public-school teachers that “it will be their turn to get salary increase following pay hikes for soldiers and policemen. The Angara bill adjusts the current Salary Grade (SG) 11 of entry-level teachers to SG 19. At present an SG 11 teacher gets P19,077 monthly salary, which the Angara bill will increase to P36,409.
Mega Cebu
IN the House, the first lawmaker who filed bills is Cebu Rep Raul del Mar. He pitched House Bill 11 for the creation of a Mega Cebu Development Authority, HB 12 to strengthen the rights of citizens to information held by the government or the freedom of information (FOI) bill, HB 13 to allow the use of motorcycles as public-utility vehicle and HB 14 to provide for Light Rail Transport or Metro Rail Transport in Cebu.
The bill allowing the use of motorcycles as PUVs is an offshoot of hearings conducted in both chambers of the 17th Congress, tackling the rise in usage of motorcycle-hailing apps as commuters in congested urban centers seek creative ways to travel despite heavy traffic. Regulators, invoking what Sen. Grace Poe had once described as anachronistic laws, had banned outright the motorcycle-hailing system, exemplified by the popular “Angkas,” but relented to public clamor and allowed a trial period pending passage of an amending legislation.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, meanwhile, is pushing for the proposed Human Rights Defenders Protection Act or HB 15. House Bill 1 up to House Bill 10 are allotted to the bills that will be filed by the next speaker.
Another measure filed on the first day of the 18th Congress is one legalizing medical marijuana. The bill was filed by Rep. Antonio Albano, brother of former congressman and now Gov. Rodito Albano, who was the principal author of the bill during the 17th Congress. The medical marijuana bill was approved on third and final reading by the House, but the Senate failed to approve it.